Steam & Excursion > Hollywood Will Have to Wait Awhile

I never made it up to the Yreka Western, so others will have to supply the location, but what is certain is that “A-No.1 into Portland on the 19” has yet to be penned to script, and Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine are at least 10 years away from battling one another behind 2-8-2 No. 19 in “Emperor of the North Pole”.

Credit the late Henry Brueckman for this wonderful portrait of spotless shortline steam power taking on water.

Cheers,
Jack

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I can only see a thumbnail image...but that may be at Black Butte, on the way back to the McCloud in 1962 for a double head with the newly restored #25.

Just guessing.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

More likely, the location is Mt. Shasta, not Black Butte.

Like Black Butte, Mt. Shasta had a standard 65,000-gallon steel water tank. I took a photo of the tank and the water column at Mt. Shasta in August 1962. The tank there was closer to the tracks than the one at Black Butte and had a white section camp fence in front of it.

There was an excursion on the McCloud River Railroad out of Mt. Shasta to the McCloud's Pondosa branch pulled by McCRR #25 and YW #19 on June 9 and 10, 1962. A photo of the train on the McCloud can be found on pgs. 40-41 of the Winter 1997 issue of Vintage Rails. So, if the posted photo was related to that 1962 excursion, I would say it was taken June 9 based on the sun position indicating a morning shot (unless YW #19 ran down to Mt. Shasta the day before).

JohnSweetser Wrote:
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> There was an excursion on the McCloud River
> Railroad out of Mt. Shasta to the McCloud's
> Pondosa branch pulled by McCRR #25 and YW #19 on
> June 9 and 10, 1962. A photo of the train on the
> McCloud can be found on pgs. 40-41 of the Winter
> 1997 issue of Vintage Rails. So, if the posted
> photo was related to that 1962 excursion, I would
> say it was taken June 9 based on the sun position
> indicating a morning shot (unless YW #19 ran down
> to Mt. Shasta the day before).


John. I have some additional negatives by Henry of an excursion on the McCloud with 25. However, I do not have a the copy of Vintage Rails that you cited. I will post them a bit later today. Perhaps you can tell if they are from the same excursion.

Cheers,
Jack

Here are three additional photos which may have come from the same excursion. Any one recognize themselves in their younger days?

Cheers,
Jack

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That is the 1962 excursion. I have some color photographs on McCloud Rails at the following link:

http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/PassengerOperations/25-19-1962.html

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Is that the Vinegar Valley Express in the last image?

Thanks for posting!

JDLX Wrote:
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> That is the 1962 excursion.

Thanks, Jeff! Now I can put a precise date on the negatives. It looks like Joe and Henry took their head-on views of the 25 only moments apart. Note the boy in the whte T-shirt.

Cheers,
Jack

Lou-

Yes, that is the railbus at Camp Kinyon in that last image...FYI it was always known as the Red Goose when it ran...the VGE name appears to be a later railfan-applied name for that car...

Fascinating shot...first decent shot of Camp Kinyon that I have ever seen...

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

The excusion originated in Oakland, with SP trains No. and 20 and 19 carrying the cars for the excursion to and from Dunsmuir. Presumably, they left Oakland on Friday night, June 8.

I also presume that the excursionists stayed overnight somehere on the McCloud River Railroad. Any info on this aspect?

In checking timetables for 1962, in order for the excursionists to return to the Bay Area before Monday, their train cars would have had to be in Dunsmuir before 11 am on Sunday to make the connection with No. 19. Therefore, I suspect a round-trip was made on the McCloud RR all in one day (which would be Saturday June 9), with excursionists staying overnight in Mt. Shasta or in Dunsmuir. Was this the scenario?