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The entire reason for the existence of the Lookout Job is to take all freight
to or from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe from McCloud to Lookout Junction. This
job used to run daily from the time the line was opened in 1939 until about 1979.
From 1939 up until 1948 the consist was swelled by loaded log cars bound for McCloud.
From about 1980 until about 1990 the Lookout Job generally ran once every two to
three weeks. This changed in the late 1980’s when inbound paper started coming
in from Lookout to a warehouse and rail-to-truck reload facility at McCloud, and
operations over the line increased to 2-4 trains a week. However, the paper traffic
disappeared by the middle of 1998, and operations since have consisted of one train
a week or less, with train lengths averaging 1 to 6 cars per trip. In late 2003,
BNSF struck a haulage agreement with Union Pacific that sees McCloud-BNSF interchange
traffic handled by the Union Pacific between the McCloud at Mt. Shasta City and BNSF
at Klamath Falls, Oregon. The last train to Lookout ran on 16 December 2003. BNSF
abandoned the Hambone to Lookout trackage in 2005, and the McCloud Railway removed the
Bartle to Hambone trackage in 2008.
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