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McCloud Rails - The Last Two Weeks?
McCloud Rails : The Last Two Weeks?
Page 9

Rolling through the trees. Drew Jacksich photo, used with permission.


The sun setting on the railroad in more ways than one as the train rolled westbound through Bartle. Drew Jacksich photo, used with permission.

Epilogue: What Next?

The $1,000 per carload surcharge went into effect on Sautrday 1 July 2006. It appears that both of the remaining shippers have abandoned the services of the McCloud Railway. Dicalite is now trucking its products formerly loaded at Cayton to a new reload they established on the BNSF at Nubieber, and Sierra Pacific Industries is trucking lumber from the Burney mill to a reload they operate at Nubieber and to their Anderson mill where it can be loaded directly onto the Union Pacific. It appears that the end of revenue movements to and from Burney, CA, is at hand

All revenue cars have been cleared out of the Burney basin. The railroad will still need to make one trip east of McCloud to get the remaining boxcars at Pondosa. Five wreck damaged cars remain in the siding at Berry, and it is an open question as to what will happen with them. They may be cut up on sight, they may be sold to John Carlton trucking for scrap, or the railroad may make an effort to move them back to McCloud. Time will tell. Meanwhile the train the McCloud brought back from Burney on the 30th sits in the McCloud yard and will likely go to Mount Shasta City on or after Wednesday 5 July.

While the McCloud Railway got down to running what could be the last week one of the three parties that had previously filed a Notice of Intent to File an Offer of Financial Assistance actually came through with a formal OFA. Seaside Holdings of Florida filed such a document on Monday 26 June 2006; the document stated that they figure the net liquidation value of the line east of McCloud is around $1.5 million, more than $3 million less than the figure arrived at by the McCloud Railway. Seaside includes its own supporting documentation stating why they believe the figures used by the McCloud Railway are too high. The Surface Transportation Board has given the two parties one month to work out a deal; at any point within that month either party can ask the STB to determine sale terms. If the two parties do not come to an agreement by late July the OFA process ends and the abandonment can go forward.

There is already one party waiting in the wings for the OFA process to end. Save Burney Falls, a local non-profit based in the Burney area, hopes to turn the mainline from Berry to Lake Britton along with the north leg of the Berry Wye and a part of the Sierra branch from Berry to the Black Ranch Road crossing into a trail. The McCloud Railway has stated its opposition to this in the past. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If everything works out in the McCloud Railway's favor they may finally have their permission to abandon the line east of McCloud by late August 2006; however, there is still the possibility that another party may yet purchase the line to try their hand. If Save Burney Falls pursues a trail request that may push the abandonment timeline back another 180 days to give the two parties some negotiating time. Time will tell how this all works out.

Meanwhile the passenger operations continue. The railroad plans a special Fourth of July excursion between McCloud and Mount Shasta City, with one short trip from Mount Shasta City to Big Canyon thrown in. However, diesels will be used on these trips for the first time in eight years. The Shasta Sunset Dinner Train steps up to three nights a week in July, with the exursion train to Signal Butte running before the dinner train of Friday and Saturday nights. It is an open question as to whether this will be enough to sustain the McCloud-Mount Shasta City trackage in the long run. There is a possibility that the proposed Nestle bottled water facility in McCloud may bring a healthy amount of freight business back to the railroad, but the plant (if it gets built) is still at least three years off. The railroad might be able to hold out that long, but it might not.

Even if the events of the past two weeks do prove to be the last revenue freight movements on the railroad, this story is still a long ways from over.