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McCloud Rails
Photos from the Heritage Junction Museum of McCloud, Inc. Collection Railroading in the Winter |
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Winters tended to be harsh around in the McCloud country. The McCloud River Railroad elected to shut down during the first several winters, but after a few years the company accumulated the necessary snowplows to maintain year round operations. Here are some photographs of snow removal operations during the winter months. |
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A locomotive and one of the small bucker/flangers has plowed up to some tractors and arches
buried in snow at a landing site. |
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A plow train at one of the camps east of McCloud.
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The #11 and two other small prairies pushing a plow and pulling a log train on a trestle east of McCloud.
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The most effective way to use a bucker plow was to push the plow through the snow until the plow
train stalls out. The train would then back up the line a ways before taking a running start at
the snowbank that stalled the train in the first place. Some drifts required numerous "runs" into
a snow bank before the plow broke through. This photograph is looking at one such jam from the deck
of one of the bucker plows.
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When all else failed gangs of men would be called in to shovel snow. This crew appears to be digging
out a junction switch somewhere along the line.
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Four locomotives and a caboose pushing a plow.
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Another shot of one of the buckers doing what it was built to do.
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One of the early mikados pushing a bucker plow and pulling a caboose and flanger #1773.
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Plow #1767 at work.
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Looking back from a plow at the power.
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Five locomotives powering a plow train.
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An early shot of McCloud snow removal operations.
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