The McCloud River Railroad's passenger equipment roster consisted of only two flatcars equipped with benches
and railings at the time the shops returned the #25 to service in 1962. The first several fan trips largely utilized
equipment provided by organizations sponsoring the trips; however, the increasing frequency and popularity of
excursions prompted the railroad to start leasing coaches from the Southern Pacific. By the end of 1964, two
60-foot coaches, SP #1015 and #1803, had taken up almost permanent residence in McCloud. Pullman built both
of the cars for SP subsidiaries, the #1015 for the Northwestern Pacific as their #468 in February 1915 and the #1803
as part of a 28-car lot built for the Houston & Texas Central (#844) in April and May 1921. SP inherited the
#468 from the NWP in 1935, while the #844 passed through the Texas & New Orleans, another SP subsidiary, before
becoming the SP #1803 on 25 July 1931. They had been among the first steel passenger cars SP owned, and newer passenger
equipment relegated these cars into SP's San Jose-San Francisco commute service by post-World War II years.
McCloud River leased the two cars from 1964 through the middle months of 1966, when the railroad finally purchased
them, along with a third such car, former SP #1949, which had been built by Pullman as part of a 33-car lot constructed
in May and June of 1911. The McCloud shops painted the #1015 and #1803 in a bright red paint scheme with silver roofs,
with the railroad name is fancy script above the windows. The shops removed the seats from the #1949 as part of plans
to convert it into a "party car", but in the end the railroad decided to rebild caboose #035 for this service instead, and
the #1949 languished for several years in the McCloud yards until several members of the Pacific Locomotive Association
noticed it from a fan trip and arranged for its donation to their organization. That group subsequently rebuilt the car,
and it is in service on their Niles Canyon Railway.
The remaining two cars served the railroad well through the rest of the 1960s. Around 1971, the railroad repainted the
two cars solid orange with silver roofs, with the logo mounted on the sides of the cars. The railroad renumbered and
named the two cars, the #1803 to #01 and named the Dolly Glover after the wife of McCloud engineer T.E. "Eddie"
Glover, and the #1015 to #02 and named the Eda Mcquesten, a long-time member of the Northern California Railroad
Club, one of the principle sponsors of excursions over the road at the time. The club also renovated the interiors of the
two cars at the same time, which included installing a small concession stand in one of the cars.
The cars saw very little use after the #25 made its last runs in 1975. In December 1979, the railroad retired the two cars
and wrote their combined book value of $2,060 off the books. The company donated the pair to the Dunsmuir Chamber of
Commerce, and the SP moved them from Mt. Shasta to Dunsmuir. The Chamber trucked the #01 to a display spot near the city
park and started preparations to move the #02 as well; however, before that could happen the #02 got away from a SP switch
crew and took off down the Sacramento River canyon towards Redding. A local SP official chasing the car clocked it at
sixty miles per hour in the canyon, and quick work by dispatchers routed it through sidings around trains that happened
to be in the canyon. The escapade ended at Gibson, where debris piled by a train crew on some switch points caused the car
to lay over on its side. An inspection of the car after it was rerailed revealed a bolt that had been inserted through the
chain on the hand brake that prevented it from being fully applied.
The SP returned the #1015/02 to Dunsmuir after the runaway, and the Dunsmuir chamber ended up selling the car to a private party
in Weed, who moved it to some property in that town near the College of the Siskiyous campus. It resided there for several years
until it disappeared, probably scrapped on the spot. The #1803/01 remained in Dunsmuir until 1985, when the Chamber traded it to
the Great Western Railroad Museum for an old Northern Pacific caboose. The museum returned the car to McCloud, where it was again
used on a handful of excursions in 1985 and 1986. The car remains in McCloud in 2017.
Special thanks to George Landrock and especially David Dewey for information on these cars.
|
