The McCloud 37 backed onto the Wisconsin Valley and Second Section of our train. That is Black Butte in the background.
Our Second Section is departing the McCloud/UP Interchange Yard for McCloud.
Our Second Section leaving Mount Shasta City.
Mount Shasta stood out in front as we started up the 4.4 % grade.
Approaching the grade crossing where tomorrow people sleeping in at Mount Shasta City will board and I will transfer to the Chase Bus to Klamath Falls.
We stopped briefly to put out a small trackside fire that the First Section started.
The rear of our Second Section on this 4.4% grade.
Our Second Section came to a stop at MP 14 to put out several small track side fires. Once they had been put out the fire we started up the grade and about half a mile later the McCloud 37 engine shut down. The crew tried to restart it but it would not stay on. If started then stopped. Then the train started to slowly roll back down the 4.4 grade. We had moved only a few feet when Steve Sandberg, MR Milwaukee Road 261, came to the rear of the 37 and turned the brake wheel. He then went through the train putting on all the car's hand brakes. He returned to the engine and where he and the Amtrak Road Foremen studied the problem. Next Steve took a broom and stuck the handle into the engine in order to keep the engine's dampers open. They restarted the engine and with the broom handle being held by Steve it stayed on. Steve would now have to hold the broom handle to keep the dampers open for the rest of the climb to the summit at Pierce.
Steve Sandberg keeps our engine working.
The view looking back captured Black Butte behind our train.
Steve sure did a great job keeping us going. All of our passengers want to take this opportunity to thank Steve Sandberg for not only this but everything he did to make this trip a great success.
Looking back at Big Canon.
Ryan Wilkerson caught me in the vestibule and Steve still hard at work as we passed by his photo location at Big Canon.
Alex Ramos caught the First Section of our train with green flags flying at Big Canon.
Later Alex Ramos caught our Second Section with red flags also taken at Big Canon with the McCloud 37 leading.
Alex Ramos turned to get this neat going away shot of Cedar Rapids at Big Canon.
A curve, a look back and a view of the train and Mt Shasta.
Once we reached the Summit at Pierce, the engineer switched on the Dynamic Braking System and the engine then ran fine and Steve's duties were done. We ran to the Signal Butte Switchback. When we reached the Signal Butte Switchback we found all of the First Section passengers off of their train taking pictures of our train. The plan was to offload our passengers here so we could also photograph the McCloud Dinner Train arriving but because of our problems coming over the hill from Mount Shasta City we were over an hour late getting here. We asked our car attendant about getting off but he knew nothing. He sounded like Sergeant Schultz on Hogan Hero's. We asked him to find out if we could get off or not. We never saw him again the rest of the trip until be detrained in McCloud. The train pulled all the way down the switchback to near the First Section.
We passed the old turntable pit four times as we traveled back and forth.
We all still stayed on. After a few minutes, we backed passed all the photographers and back up the line towards Mount Shasta City to let off our passengers going on the McCloud Dinner Train.
As we neared the switch, the Dinner Train came up the hill from McCloud. I took a picture but suddenly realized the lighting was pretty poor and I felt getting off would have been a waste of film and time. After dropping off our passengers for the Dinner Train we pulled by the photographers again to clear track space for the Dinner Train to come up so they could go to Mount Shasta City. This lack of communication could have been avoided if all onboard crew members had walkie talkies so they could reach the people who make the trip decisions. With any large group, good communications are a must for a successful trip.
Our Second Section started backing down the 4.4% grade towards McCloud and this view occurred.
Our train slowly backing down this steep grade.
Mt Shasta once again came into view.
The stand for the former water tank at Hooper.
The McCloud 37 did get us back to flat ground at McCloud and backed us in to a track by the engine house ending a fantastic day of train riding on this Trains Unlimited Tours trip. I got off for a good picture of our Second Section and the McCloud 37.
The Second Section at McCloud.
The McCloud SD-38 37 at McCloud.
Once we all detrained off of our Second Section next to the McCloud Shops we all boarded two buses that would take us to the site of the former McCloud River Railroad Depot that had burned to the ground since my last visit. This is where the First Section pulled into. Here we got off the bus to find our bus to our hotel for the night. I found my bus and once our driver turned on the bus air conditioning it cooled down. Chris Skow then gave us our choice of pickup of 5:00 AM to come back to McCloud to board the train there or 7:45 AM to be taken to the grade crossing outside of Mount Shasta City to board the train. With all of us now with that information, our bus driver took us back over the hill to Mount Shasta City to the Mt Air Motel for the night. Once I had checked in, I found a store for some snacks for my breakfast in the morning before I called it a night after a fantastic day of train riding on our Trains Unlimited Trip.
There were problems with the Mt Shasta overnight. No directions were given to passengers about the McCloud 18 photo freight the next morning. The bus driver taking passengers to the Strawberry Court was not given good directions to get to that hotel which took a long time for the passengers staying there to get there. The passengers taken to the Motel 6 in Weed, California had to pay for their own rooms due to a major mix up by that hotel. Trains Unlimited will cover their expense if passengers would send them their hotel receipts.
Go to the link below to continue with the Trains Unlimited Story.
