I spent a couple of days in the McCloud area this last week, and the dismantling of the McCloud R.R. sadly continues.

As of last Friday, all trackage from Bartle to Hambone is gone, as is the wye. Track has been removed south across Highway 89 and on towards Curtis. Everything from Burney to Cayton is gone. At this rate, most of the rail east of McCloud should be gone before winter.

It appears that removed rail is being reloaded into gondolas at Bartle, for shipment to Mt. Shasta. Unsure what days they are running. Of course, I missed one train last Wednesday... At Mt. Shasta there were 20 or so gons on the McCloud leads.

The scrapper is using a small Kumatsu crawler with a structure fabricated of steel pipe to remove the ties once the rail is gone. The irony being that it looks like a large old style steam locomotive cowcatcher.

Progress, sometimes it sucks.

sda