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McCloud Rails
Equipment Roster Lumber Flats |
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The McCloud River Railroad handled a lot of local lumber traffic, especially early in the company's
history. Prior to the lumber company completing the various plants and factories in McCloud, the
railroad hauled all lumber produced in McCloud to Upton for finishing; later, the railroad hauled
lumber milled at Ash Creek into McCloud, and then in later years the railroad handled a good
amount of local lumber traffic, principally lumber produced in McCloud bound for box factories
located either on the McCloud or on the SP in the Sisson/Mt. Shasta City area. To handle this
traffic, the railroad rostered a substantial number of lumber flats. Like the log cars, the
railroad would also use the lumber flats in other services, especially as ballast cars, wood
racks, maintenance/work flats, and others as needed. Perhaps one of the more interesting of these
other uses occurred in 1914, when the railroad fixed the #1001 up as a fish car to help the
California Fish and Game Commission plant fish in the McCloud River. Over the four days between
August 25-28,1914, the railroad planted 60,000 Black Spotted Trout; 50,000 Loch Leven Trout;
28,000 Eastern Brook Trout; and 24,000 Rainbow Trout into the river. The fish train, consisting
of the #1001 and one of the Shay locomotives, would be spotted on trestles over the river, where
the fish would be dumped from the car into the water below. 401-539 (Odd Numbers): 36-foot, mostly 25-ton capacity, wood frame cars. The railroad purchased 60 of these cars new from Hick's Locomotive & Car Works in late 1901 and the remaining ten from an unrecorded source prior to 1906. Most of these cars rebuilt in the McCloud car shop in 1911/1912; all cars converted to other services or retired by the end of 1939. 1001-1049 (Odd Numbers): 36-foot, wood frame cars, purchased new in March 1907 from American Car & Foundry Company, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Disposition of cars as follows: #1001 to log flat #2155; #1003 to log flat #2131; #1005 to log flat #2157; #1007 to log flat #2125; #1009 to log flat #2133; #1011 to log flat #2143; #1013 to log flat #2159; #1015 to log flat #2135; #1017 to log flat #2161; #1019 to log flat #2163; #1021 equipped with a wood rack and retired 1940; #1023 to log flat #2145; #1025 to log flat #2165; #1027 to log flat #2147; #1029 to log flat #2127; #1031 equipped with a wood rack and retired 1939; #1033 to log flat #2149; #1035 to log flat #2137; #1037 to log flat #2151; #1039 to log flat #2139; #1041 to log flat #2129; #1043 to log flat #2153; #1045 to log flat #2167; #10479 to log flat #2169; #1049 to log flat #2141.  Lumber flats #1021, #433, and one other, all equipped with wood racks, wrecked somewhere in McCloud. From the T.E. "Eddy" Glover collection. 1053-1057 (Odd Numbers): 36-foot, wood frame cars, built 1911 in McCloud car shop. Retired 1924-1939. |
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