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McCloud River Railroad: Serving The Timber Industry (1897-2009)

Last revised: September 30, 2026

By: Adam Burns

The McCloud River Railroad was the timber railroad on the east side of Mount Shasta. Reporting mark MCR. It left the Southern Pacific at Upton, the place that became Mount Shasta City, climbed a 4 percent grade with switchbacks at Big Canyon and Signal Butte, and came down into a lumber-company town first called Vandale and then McCloud. From McCloud the line ran east through Bartle to Hambone, and from 1955 south to Burney. Articles of incorporation were drawn on January 21, 1897. The company came into formal existence the next day. The first trains ran on August 1, 1897. At its largest the railroad was on the order of 130 route-miles, counting the Lookout connection and leaving the temporary logging spurs out.

The lumber company controlled it until U.S. Plywood bought the mill and the railroad in 1963 and took the log hauls off the rails. Champion, then Itel, followed. On July 1, 1992, Jeff Forbis and his family reopened the property as the McCloud Railway Company. The Shasta Sunset Dinner Train, begun in the fall of 1995, made its last run in mid-January 2010. In October 2011 Mike Williams bought the operating assets, and the Forbis family kept the real estate. The company still exists as a common carrier between McCloud and Mount Shasta City. In 2026 that piece of line is the one being put back to work.

SD38 #38 with gondolas of scrap near Big Canyon, October 13, 2008, Mount Shasta behind the train. This is the hill between Mount Shasta City and McCloud, the railroad that is still in place. Drew Jacksich photo.

On this page: At a glance · Over the ridge · Hambone and Lookout · Burney, 1955 · Prairies, Mikados, and geared engines · Baldwins, then three SD38s · Forbis, the dinner train, and 2006 · 2026: railbikes, and a dinner train still ahead

At a glance

Over the ridge

The Southern Pacific’s line from California into Oregon was already through Sisson by the end of 1886, and the last rail reached Ashland on December 16, 1887. East of that railroad, under the east side of Mount Shasta, the pine stood beyond the reach of the main line. A logger named Friday George tried to bring it out with a steam-tractor road over the summit. He went bankrupt. At auction on June 10, 1895, William Van Arsdale and George W. Scott bought what was left.

They started a railroad grade in the summer of 1896, on the line of that tractor road, and had about four miles of track down before winter. The town at the end of track was called Vandale, for the new manager. On January 21, 1897, the papers were drawn for two companies at once, the McCloud River Railroad and the McCloud River Lumber Company. Both came into formal existence the next day. The same men held the offices of both: William E. Brown, president and chairman; William Van Arsdale, vice president and general manager; George W. Scott, secretary-treasurer. The lumber company controlled the railroad.

Track reached Vandale on July 21, 1897. Business opened on August 1, with a connection to the Southern Pacific at Upton, just north of Sisson. The Southern Pacific already had a station named McCloud. That station was renamed Azalea, and Vandale took the name McCloud. The lumber company owned the town.

From Mount Shasta City the railroad runs east. The grade climbs at 4 percent to a switchback at Big Canyon, crosses the summit at Pierce, and drops through a second switchback at Signal Butte on earthen fills, into the valley at McCloud. East of town the country opens toward Bartle, Pondosa, and Hambone. The lumber company laid temporary spurs into each cutting, used them, and took the rail up to lay somewhere else. The permanent railroad was the line from the Southern Pacific to Hambone, and, after 1955, to Burney.

SD38s #37 and #36 with wood products at the Signal Butte switchback, June 2005. The six-axle units will shove the train backward, uphill, to the Union Pacific interchange at Mount Shasta City. Drew Jacksich photo.

Hambone and Lookout

The permanent line kept growing east, past Bartle, and by the late 1920s it had a reason to keep going. The Great Northern and the Western Pacific had joined their Inside Gateway at Bieber. Lookout Junction, just north of Bieber, was close enough to McCloud timber that a connection was worth building.

The McCloud River Lumber Company built it. Hambone to White Horse went down in 1928 and early 1929. White Horse to Lookout Junction was built in July and August 1930, and the steel gangs finished on August 25, 1930. The Great Northern held a purchase option and used it: Lookout to White Horse on October 1, 1930, and the rest of the new line on September 15, 1931. Great Northern ownership stopped 2,100 feet east of Hambone. The McCloud granted the Great Northern trackage rights over the last 6,477 feet into a joint terminal. Western Pacific trains used the branch as well, so the timber railroad had a second Class I outlet, north into the Inside Gateway, to set beside the Southern Pacific at Mount Shasta City.

That north end lived a long time and then went quiet. After the Union Pacific–Southern Pacific merger of 1997 gave BNSF trackage rights through Reno, the paper traffic that had been moving via Lookout fell away. What remained averaged under six cars a week. The last McCloud train to Lookout ran on December 16, 2003. BNSF filed to abandon Hambone–Lookout that December and took the rail up in 2005, leaving a stub a little short of the first six miles west from Lookout Junction. In 2020 BNSF patched that remnant and stored idle cars on it.

Burney, 1955

The last new railroad was to the south. In 1944 Fruit Growers Supply, the Sunkist box company, bought the Red River Lumber Company, mainly for the Burney tract: about 80,000 acres and about 1.5 billion board feet. Wooden citrus boxes were on their way out. In early 1954 Fruit Growers and the McCloud River Lumber Company made a deal that put the harvesting in McCloud hands. The lumber company loaned the railroad $1.6 million, and construction started that year.

The new line left the Pondosa branch at Bear Flat. The first ten miles, to Ditch Creek, were a rebuilt logging spur. South of Ditch Creek the grade was new, laid beside the old Pit River Railroad. A contractor built the bridge at Lake Britton. The railroad’s own forces built the rest. A second change came with it. The old line from the McCloud River into Pondosa was given up, replaced by about six miles of new railroad southeast of Bartle to Curtis and then by lumber-company track through Bear Flat to Pondosa. In 1956 the railroad also bypassed Hambone on the east–west main.

The Burney line was finished early in the summer of 1955. The official opening was July 3, 1955, three special trains. One of them was behind 2-6-2 No. 25, one of the last steam locomotives still in service, her tender wearing a mural the McCloud schoolchildren had painted. A Bay Area railfan special came up for the day. The last tie was a piece of redwood from the Arcata & Mad River. Four ceremonial spikes went in, two silver and two gold.

What moved over the new railroad was logs, and then finished lumber and chips. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the McCloud mill was taking about 6,000 carloads of logs a year, and about 5,500 carloads of finished lumber and other products were going out to Mount Shasta City and Lookout. Pacific Gas & Electric added its own peaks: more than 1,000 carloads of pipe into Burney in 1960, and construction material into McCloud in 1963 and 1964 for a dam and a diversion tunnel.

An official 1957 system map of the McCloud River Railroad, the year after the Hambone bypass. Author’s collection.

Prairies, Mikados, and geared engines

Steam on a railroad like this came in two families. The temporary spurs and the steepest logging grades belonged to geared engines. The common-carrier trains belonged to rod engines, Prairies and Mikados. The geared pair at the beginning were Heislers Nos. 2 and 3, built by Stearns in 1897. Two Lima Shays followed in 1911, Nos. 16 and 17, works numbers 2401 and 2402. They later went to Fruit Growers Supply as Nos. 4 and 5 and were scrapped in 1952. The logging-railroad page is the wider story of that kind of power.

In 1900 Baldwin built Nos. 5 and 6, works numbers 17684 and 17685, a pair of tank articulateds. Each was two 0-6-0T engines coupled into one locomotive, an 0-6-6-0T, for the grades out of the woods. The road engines that followed were conventional. Baldwin Mikados came in small batches from 1907 on. Baldwin Prairies 20 and 21 arrived in 1924. The engines people still go looking for are the four Alco Prairies of 1925 and the two Baldwin Mikados that left and came back.

Alco-Schenectady built Nos. 22 and 23 first, works numbers 66316 and 66317, in May and July 1925. They were the smaller pair: 17-by-24-inch cylinders, 130,000 pounds, 23,700 pounds of tractive effort. No. 22 was scrapped in 1955. No. 23 went to the Arcata & Mad River as No. 11 and was scrapped in 1956. Nos. 24 and 25, works numbers 66434 and 66435, came in September 1925 and were the twins the railroad kept its eye on. Drivers 46 inches, cylinders 19 by 24, engine weight 144,000 pounds, boiler pressure 185 pounds, tractive effort 28,800 pounds. No. 25 cost $21,475, plus $2,103.89 in freight and $93.25 to break her in. No. 24 was scrapped on November 16, 1955.

No. 25 opened the Burney line on July 3, 1955, and worked out of Pondosa for about another year. Steam on the railroad itself was put away in 1953. The lumber company kept steam until it bought a diesel in 1955. Jeff Moore’s count is that five diesels, bought by the two companies between 1948 and 1955, replaced the fourteen steam locomotives then in use.

No. 25 came back. In 1962 she was rolled out for excursions, and she ran them in 1962–1975 and again in 1982–1986. She was in Bound for Glory and in Stand By Me. Title came back from the Great Western Railroad Museum late in 1995, conveyed to the McCloud Railway in January 1996, and she was restored for Labor Day weekend 1997. She ran from about August 1997 to February 2001. On Presidents Day weekend 2001 she double-headed with Mikado No. 18 on a Pacific Locomotive Association special, and No. 18 then took the excursion assignments. No. 25 made a few more trips in 2007 and 2008. On February 8, 2011, she was sold to the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad at Garibaldi, Oregon, where she is running.

No. 18 is Baldwin 41709, a 2-8-2 of 1914. She was sold to the Yreka Western in 1956 and stored at Yreka from 1964. The McCloud Railway bought her back at auction, spent nearly three years and $350,000 putting her in order, and turned her out on that Presidents Day weekend in 2001. In 2005 she was sold to the Virginia & Truckee. No. 19 is Baldwin 42000, a 2-8-2 of 1915, later Yreka Western 19. She came back to McCloud as a visitor: on April 30 and May 1, 1994, she handled excursions from McCloud to Burney and a Lookout freight that carried passengers. She is now at the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio, where she arrived in 2016.

Works numbers and the dimensions are Jeff Moore’s roster. Nos. 20 and 21, the Baldwin Prairies of 1924, and the earlier Baldwin Mikados were scrapped with the rest of the working fleet in the middle 1950s. They are in his all-time list. This table is the six engines with a life after McCloud, or a specification card worth setting down.

Prairie #25 with a photo freight westbound near Kinyon, October 11, 2008, headed toward McCloud. The track in this photograph, east of McCloud, has since been pulled up. Drew Jacksich photo.

Baldwins, then three SD38s

The first diesel was Baldwin DRS-6-6-1500 No. 28, construction number 73653, built in 1948 and scrapped in 1970. No. 29, the same model, construction number 74812, followed in 1950 and later became Magma Arizona No. 10. She is at the Arizona Railway Museum in Chandler. In April 1955 Baldwin delivered RS-12s 32 and 33, construction numbers 76024 and 76105. Both went to the California Western, the Skunk line, as Nos. 55 and 56. No. 55 was scrapped in 1984. No. 56 is at Travel Town in Los Angeles.

Two Baldwin switchers came in 1953, S-12 No. 30, serial 75912, and S-8 No. 31, serial 75913. In the early 1960s, with Baldwin out of the locomotive business and parts running out, the railroad bought three secondhand Baldwins from the Southern Pacific. AS616 No. 34, serial 75449, built in 1952 as Southern Pacific 5253, later ran as Oregon & Northwestern No. 4 and is at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola. DRS-6-6-1500 No. 35, serial 74261, had been Southern Pacific 5207. A first No. 36, serial 74258, had been Southern Pacific 5204. She kept her Southern Pacific paint, gave up parts, and was scrapped by 1970. An Alco C-415 demonstrator spent a week on the railroad in 1967. Alco offered three of them. The McCloud bought EMD instead.

The three SD38s, Nos. 36, 37, and 38, were bought new in April 1969, order 7167, 2,000 horsepower. Two of them covered the daylight Burney job and the third worked the McCloud mill and yard. When traffic slid in 1978 the railroad leased Nos. 38 and 39 to the Southern Pacific. They worked the Willamette Valley until early 1982. By May 1982 No. 38 was in the new brown paint, and 36 and 37 were repainted shortly after. SD38-2 No. 39, serial 74623-1, arrived in 1974 and later became Union Pacific 2824, then yard slug Y824 and PS6B Y420.

Serials and the EMD order numbers are the McCloud roster. The diesel and steam hubs are the type history.

Forbis, the dinner train, and 2006

U.S. Plywood’s purchase in 1963 changed the railroad in a few weeks. The company sold the town. Rail movement of logs ended, the last of them from Ditch Creek, and the camps at Kinyon and Pondosa closed. Logging cars were scrapped or sold. What continued was the common-carrier business in finished lumber. The corporate names changed with the parent: U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers in 1969, Champion International in 1972, Itel in 1977. Jeff Forbis became president in 1988, after Bill Herndon went to Itel in San Francisco. GE Capital kept the McCloud shop busy repairing boxcars.

Itel put the railroad up for sale late in 1991. The sale was announced on April 1, 1992, to 4-Rails, Inc., Forbis and his family. Itel held the closing long enough to keep a last surge of PG&E pipe, moving off the Southern Pacific at Mount Shasta City for Burney from late March into early July, about fifteen cars a day, five days a week. Ownership changed on July 1, 1992. The new company was the McCloud Railway, non-union, and the crew on a train went from four people to two overnight.

The first season tested that. The Fountain Fire in August 1992 burned about 64,000 acres and damaged the line toward Burney. It was repaired in time for a Monday train. That winter the snow reached eight feet. Crews worked every day from December 28, 1992, through January 23, 1993, and wrecked one of the three snowplows. In the fall of 1993 Sierra Pacific’s Burney mill put woodchips on the railroad. Service ran five days a week for a while, then every other business day by the spring of 1994. Sugar beets for Spreckels were reloaded at Burney, handed to the Southern Pacific at Mount Shasta City, and taken to Woodland: 250 cars in ten days in 1993, 320 cars in two weeks in October 1994, and a last season in 1995 of 200 loads in four 50-car unit trains. By the fall of 1996 the local harvest was moving by truck to Burlington Northern at Stronghold, Oregon.

The Shasta Sunset Dinner Train started in the fall of 1995, out of McCloud, with four heavyweight coaches from a closed Midwest exhibit. Within a year the railroad had those four and three more heavyweights. By 1996 the set included five former VIA coaches. The train grew to six cars: Saturday nights year-round, Thursday and Friday in summer, and a same-day excursion partway toward Mount Shasta City. After the steam locomotives were sold, the dinner train was a diesel train.

Freight was already thinning. The paper business via Lookout was gone after 1997, and the railroad was losing about half a million dollars a year on freight, with the track going down and derailments going up. In the winter of 1996–97 the fill at Big Canyon went out. The line was shut for about a month and a half. FRA disaster relief, $580,000, arrived in mid-1998. A typical late-1990s year was 1,500 to 2,000 loads, most of them Sierra Pacific at Burney and Dicalite at Cayton. A Burney train backed 7.8 miles between Berry Wye and the mill. Caboose 102 stayed on the hind end for that reverse move, and for the switchback at Signal Butte.

SD38 #37 crosses Highway 89 just north of Lake Britton, bound for the Sierra Pacific mill at Burney, June 26, 2006. The Burney line’s rails were off by the end of 2008. Drew Jacksich photo.

SD38 #38 arrives at Signal Butte with loads, June 28, 2006, in the last week of freight to Burney. Drew Jacksich photo.

Early in July 2005 the company applied to abandon everything east of milepost 3.3, just west of the Pilgrim Creek Road crossing. Offers of financial assistance fell through. The last freights to Burney ran at the end of June 2006. Salvage began in August 2008, and the rails on that eastern railroad were up by the end of 2008. The Great Shasta Rail Trail, held by the Shasta Land Trust, is that grade. The Mount Shasta City–McCloud line stayed. The dinner train was announced as finished near the end of 2009. The last dinner train ran in mid-January 2010.

In October 2011 the Mike Williams Group bought the McCloud Railway and the Shasta Sunset companies and the operating assets. The Forbis family kept the real estate. Williams’s later petition to the Surface Transportation Board states that he acquired the company’s stock in 2011. Moves after the sale were occasional, mostly to take out scrap or cars that had been sold.

2026: railbikes, and a dinner train still ahead

Three different things are underway on the surviving railroad, and they are worth keeping apart. One is a legal step that has already taken effect. One is a railbike ride that is carrying people. One is a dinner train, and diesel excursions, that the operators hope to run in 2027.

On March 27, 2025, Michael W. Williams filed with the Surface Transportation Board for authority, after the fact, to control the McCloud Railway Company, the Ozark Valley Railroad, and the Washington & Idaho Railway. Docket FD 36848. The Board granted the exemption. The Federal Register notice is document 2026-05765, scheduled for March 25, 2026, and the exemption took effect on April 19, 2026. His petition describes the McCloud as 19.6 miles of line, largely inactive and still un-abandoned, plus a residual right to reactivate service over about 80 miles that were approved for abandonment and railbanked. Those abandonment proceedings are the Board’s AB 914X decisions served October 14, 2005, and April 29, 2016. Railfan & Railroad describes the same property from the operating end: a railroad that once reached about 130 miles, of which about 15 miles of main line between McCloud and Mount Shasta remain the line in view. Both figures belong in the story. The 19.6 miles are the Board’s count of the un-abandoned property. The 15 miles are the main line between the two towns.

Trains, in David Lassen’s account of August 17, 2026, identifies Eric Haymes as Williams’s partner, and Braden Brickman as the manager at this stage. Brickman is chief mechanical officer at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City. He told Trains he was hoping to keep the railbikes going through 2026, even for a short stretch before snow, and he said he was “hoping by early spring next year, if everything falls into place right, that dinner train is going to be loading passengers and serving people again.” Williams had moved the dinner-train cars to another railroad he controls after the McCloud trains stopped, and Brickman said those cars were in good condition. Railfan (Justin Franz, August 4, 2026) reported the same shape of plan from its sources: railbike rides later in 2026, and diesel-powered excursions in 2027, with former VIA cars and two SD38s being prepared.

The railbikes came first. Shasta Railbikes held a soft opening the weekend of August 15–16, 2026, two trips each day. The price announced for that weekend was $100 for an adult and $50 for a child. Enjoy magazine, on August 26, described the ride then being offered: a two-hour trip on battery-assisted pedal railbikes, about eight miles, leaving from the old engine shop in downtown McCloud. The route passes the old lumber mill, runs behind Hitchcock’s shop, crosses Panther Creek on an old wooden bridge, and turns near Pilgrim Creek. Alayna Jones, the operations manager, told the magazine that four-seat electric bikes were on loan while custom railbikes were being built, and that the larger dinner-train restoration was moving slowly. The railbikes are the part a visitor can ride now. Current trips and fares are on shastarailbikes.com.

The track they use is the same hill in the photographs. Jeff Moore reported on March 16, 2026, that brush and trees had been cleared from the whole McCloud–Mount Shasta City line and from most of the McCloud yard, and that a trackmobile was moving cars in the yard. Brickman told Trains that perhaps 90 percent of the inactive right-of-way had been cleared enough to run a hi-rail truck, and that at three dirt-road crossings one rail had been taken out and the other left. The railroad set a volunteer weekend for September 25–27, 2026, to clear right-of-way, replace ties, do mechanical work, repair buildings, and prepare locomotives, cars, and three speeders the company had recently brought back. Moore’s own front page, updated September 17, still described the railroad as a common carrier between McCloud and Mount Shasta City.

The old engine shop, where the railbikes leave, still holds two of the railroad’s SD38s, and the reactivation work has been on two SD38s. The roster lists Nos. 36 and 38 as the units stored at McCloud. No. 37 left for the Dakota Southern in October 2016. No. 25 is in service in Oregon. No. 18 is on the Virginia & Truckee. No. 19 is in Sugarcreek. The 2026 railroad, if the dinner train does come back in the spring of 2027, will be a diesel railroad on the hill between McCloud and Mount Shasta.

Related reading on American-Rails.com

• Logging railroads · Shay · Heisler · Prairie type · Mikado type
• Baldwin · Alco · California Western (Skunk) · Southern Pacific · Great Northern · Short lines

Sources

• Moore, Jeff. McCloud River Railroad history. mccloudriverrailroad.com and the same chapters at trainweb.org/mccloudrails: before 1895 (Friday George, auction June 10, 1895, Southern Pacific through Sisson); 1895–1900 (grade in 1896, articles January 21, 1897, formal existence January 22, officers Brown, Van Arsdale, and Scott, track into Vandale July 21, opening August 1, Upton, Azalea, McCloud); 1940–1963 (steam put away in 1953, five diesels and fourteen steam locomotives then in use, Pondosa line change, Fruit Growers and the $1.6 million loan, Burney opening July 3, 1955, carload figures, 1962 excursions, U.S. Plywood in 1963 and the end of rail log hauls); 1992 to the Williams purchase (4-Rails, July 1, 1992, pipe trains, Fountain Fire, the hard winter, chips, Spreckels beets, Yreka Western 19 in 1994, dinner train from fall 1995, paper traffic after 1997, Big Canyon fill, Burney abandonment, last freights at the end of June 2006, salvage through the end of 2008, Great Shasta Rail Trail, last dinner train mid-January 2010, October 2011 sale). Hambone–Lookout: lumber company construction, steel finished August 25, 1930, Great Northern purchases October 1, 1930 and September 15, 1931, the 2,100-foot and 6,477-foot terminal arrangement, last train December 16, 2003, 2005 salvage, 2020 car storage. Front page updated September 17, 2026: the railroad still exists as a common carrier between McCloud and Mount Shasta City. March 16, 2026: the Mount Shasta line and most of the yard cleared, a trackmobile moving cars
• Moore, Jeff. Locomotive roster and the pages for Nos. 18, 19, 25, and the SD38s. No. 25: Alco 66435, September 1925, 46-inch drivers, 19×24, 144,000 lb, 185 psi, 28,800 lb tractive effort, price as invoiced, excursion spans, sold to the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad February 8, 2011. Nos. 22–24 as in the table. No. 18: Baldwin 41709, 1914, Yreka Western, restoration, Presidents Day 2001, Virginia & Truckee 2005. No. 19: Baldwin 42000, 1915, Age of Steam Roundhouse, 2016. Heislers 2 and 3, Stearns, 1897. Lima Shays 16 and 17, works 2401 and 2402, 1911, later Fruit Growers Supply 4 and 5, scrapped 1952. Baldwin tank articulateds 5 and 6, works 17684 and 17685, 1900. SD38s 34880–34882, order 7167, April 1969. No. 37 to the Dakota Southern, October 2016. SD38-2 74623-1, 1974, later Union Pacific
• Trainweb.org roster, McCloud River / McCloud Railway (rosters/MCR.html). Baldwin serials for 28–35 and the RS-12s, the Southern Pacific secondhand units, and the EMD order numbers, read against Moore’s pages. RS-12s 32 and 33 to California Western 55 and 56
• Surface Transportation Board, Docket No. FD 36848, Michael W. Williams—Control Exemption—McCloud Railway Company, Ozark Valley Railroad, and Washington & Idaho Railway. Petition filed March 27, 2025. Federal Register document 2026-05765. Exemption effective April 19, 2026. The petition’s 19.6 miles, and about 80 railbanked miles. McCloud Railway abandonment, AB 914X, served October 14, 2005, and April 29, 2016
• Lassen, David. Trains, August 17, 2026. Eric Haymes as partner. Braden Brickman as manager. The dinner-train cars, and Brickman’s hope for railbikes in 2026 and a dinner train in early spring 2027. Right-of-way cleared enough to hi-rail, and three dirt-road crossings with one rail removed
• Franz, Justin. Railfan & Railroad, August 4, 2026. About 130 miles at the largest, about 15 miles of main line today, hopes for railbikes later in 2026 and diesel excursions in 2027, two SD38s and former VIA cars, volunteer weekend of September 25–27, 2026
• Peterson, Megan. “Riding the Rails.” Enjoy, August 26, 2026. Alayna Jones. Eight miles, two hours, from the old engine shop, the route past the mill and across Panther Creek. Soft-opening prices for August 15–16, 2026, two trips a day, $100 and $50, are Moore’s news note of August 22, 2026. Current trips are on shastarailbikes.com

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    Shamrock Coal's mint-green coal trains, 1979–1987. Eight EMD SD40-2s, OWTX 9950–9957, order 786246. Two 72-car gondola sets. Louisville & Nashville, then CSX. Sold to BC Rail.

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20. Rhode Island Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 14, 26 03:03 PM

    
    Rhode Island railroad museums—the Friends’ museum in the 1875 Kingston depot, on the old New York, Providence and Boston. Confirm what is on view.

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21. Original Norfolk Southern Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 14, 26 12:40 PM

    
    All-time diesel roster of the original Norfolk Southern Railway. 59 locomotives: Baldwin switchers and AS-416s, three GE 70-tonners, 17 GP18s, and seven GP38s. Serials and order numbers.

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22. Original Norfolk Southern Railway: Map, Rosters, History

    Oct 14, 26 10:09 AM

    
    The original Norfolk Southern Railway, chartered in 1870 as the Elizabeth City & Norfolk. Norfolk to Charlotte. Merged into the Southern Railway on January 1, 1974. Baldwin diesels and the GP18s and G…

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23. Nebraska Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 14, 26 10:00 AM

    
    Nebraska railroad museums—the Durham Museum, Kenefick Park, Cody Park, and the Golden Spike Tower over Bailey Yard. Confirm hours on each site.

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24. Nevada Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 14, 26 09:51 AM

    
    Nevada railroad museums—Carson City, Boulder City, the Nevada Northern at East Ely, and the Virginia City depot. Confirm hours on each site.

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25. Montana Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 14, 26 12:17 AM

    
    Montana railroad museums—the Livingston depot, Fort Missoula’s Willamette, the Harlowton Milwaukee depot, and the Whitefish station. Confirm hours on each site.

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26. "Jawn Henry" Locomotive: Specs, Diagram, Photos

    Oct 14, 26 12:03 AM

    
    Norfolk & Western No. 2300, class TE-1, the steam turbine-electric Jawn Henry. Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton, Westinghouse, and Babcock & Wilcox, May 1954. Specifications, the road tests, and the Dece…

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27. Atlantic and Danville Railway: Serving Southern VA

    Oct 13, 26 04:32 PM

    
    Atlantic and Danville Railway, chartered in 1882, incorporated September 1883. Three-foot line to Claremont, then Norfolk to Danville. Southern lease from September 1, 1899, to July 1, 1949. Alco RS2s…

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28. Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railroad: Map, Roster, History

    Oct 13, 26 04:26 PM

    
    Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railway, chartered October 2, 1962, and operating from November 1, 1962. Norfolk to Danville, 210.8 miles. Two Alco RS36s and four RS11s. Merged into the N&W on December…

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29. Norfolk & Western Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 12, 26 11:59 PM

    
    Norfolk & Western diesel roster, all-time. 1,464 locomotives built new for the railroad, from the 1955 GP9s and RS-3s through the C36-7s, plus the merger fleets.

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30. Norfolk & Western Steam Roster (Post 1900)

    Oct 12, 26 11:52 PM

    
    Norfolk & Western steam since 1898. The Roanoke grid: 1,266 locomotives, the J, the A, and the Y, and the last road steam on May 7, 1960.

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31. Norfolk & Western Railway: Map, Logo, Rosters, History

    Oct 12, 26 11:45 PM

    
    The Norfolk & Western, from the City Point Railroad of 1838 to Norfolk Southern. Pocahontas coal, Roanoke steam, and the 1964 expansion.

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32. Louisiana Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 12, 26 11:24 PM

    
    Louisiana railroad museums—the DeQuincy depot, the Long Leaf sawmill, Jackson’s model railroad, and Southern Pacific 745. Confirm hours on each site.

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33. Michigan Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 12, 26 11:14 PM

    
    Michigan railroad museums—Pere Marquette 1225 at Owosso, Durand Union Station, The Henry Ford, and the Mount Clemens depot. Confirm hours on each site.

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34. Mississippi Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 12, 26 10:52 PM

    
    Mississippi railroad museums—McComb’s rebuilt Illinois Central depot and Illinois Central 2542, and the Casey Jones museum at Water Valley. Confirm hours on each site.

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35. The "E2b": PRR's Experimental Freight Electrics

    Oct 12, 26 10:33 PM

    
    PRR class E2b: six GE B-B freight electrics, 4939–4944, 2,500 hp, 11 kV AC. Specifications, roster, and the 1964 scrap.

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36. Alaska Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 12, 26 10:10 PM

    
    Alaska railroad museums—the Museum of Alaska in Wasilla, Tanana Valley No. 1 at Pioneer Park, and the Engine 557 shop. Confirm hours on each site.

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37. Western and Atlantic Railroad: Map, History, Timetables

    Oct 12, 26 09:55 PM

    
    The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia, authorized December 21, 1836, from Atlanta to Chattanooga. The state still owns the 137.33-mile line. CSX leases it. The through railroad opene…

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38. Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Steam Roster (Post 1900)

    Oct 12, 26 09:52 PM

    
    Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis steam since 1900. Drury's class grid: Consolidations, 51 Mikados, three 2-8-8-2s, Pacifics, and 25 4-8-4s. Last steam was January 4, 1953.

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39. Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 12, 26 09:27 PM

    
    Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis diesel roster, all-time. Switchers from 1941, 37 GP7s, and the F3s and F7s. The quantity column totals 132 locomotives.

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40. Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway: Map, History, Logo

    Oct 12, 26 08:41 PM

    
    The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis, the Dixie Line. Charter of December 11, 1845, the Cumberland tunnel, and the Louisville & Nashville merger of August 30, 1957.

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41. Idaho Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 12, 26 02:44 PM

    
    Idaho railroad museums—Nampa’s 1903 depot, Wallace’s Northern Pacific depot, and Boise’s 1925 Union Pacific depot. Confirm hours on each site.

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42. Hawaii Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 12, 26 12:50 PM

    
    Hawaii railroad museums—the Hawaiian Railway Society at Ewa Beach and the Laupahoehoe Train Museum on the Big Island. Confirm hours on each site.

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43. Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad: Map, History, Timetable

    Oct 12, 26 11:44 AM

    
    Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, chartered March 8, 1845 as the Belpre & Cincinnati. Opened in April 1857, sold under foreclosure December 9, 1882, and succeeded by the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern…

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44. Tennessee Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 12, 26 11:39 AM

    
    Tennessee railroad museums—TVRM and Southern 4501 in Chattanooga, the Tennessee Central museum in Nashville, Casey Jones in Jackson, and the depots at Cookeville, Cowan, and Townsend.

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45. Virginia Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 12, 26 09:40 AM

    
    Virginia railroad museums—Roanoke’s Virginia Museum of Transportation and the O. Winston Link Museum, the C&O center at Clifton Forge, and the depots in Richmond, Fairfax Station, Suffolk, Parksley, a…

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46. Louisville & Nashville Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 12, 26 12:15 AM

    
    Louisville & Nashville diesel roster, all-time. Switchers from 1939, the cab units, and EMD, Alco, and GE hoods through the SD50s. The quantity column totals 1948 locomotives, plus 29 yard slugs.

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47. Louisville & Nashville Steam Roster (Post 1900)

    Oct 11, 26 05:44 PM

    
    Louisville & Nashville steam since 1900. Drury's class grid: Consolidations, 165 heavy Mikados, 42 Big Emma 2-8-4s, Pacifics, and 22 Mountains. Last steam January 1957.

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48. Louisville and Nashville Railroad: Map, Rosters, History

    Oct 11, 26 05:39 PM

    
    Louisville & Nashville, the Old Reliable. Charter of March 5, 1850, Milton H. Smith, the 921-mile main line, Big Emma, and the December 29, 1982 merger. Steam and diesel rosters are companion pages.

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49. Oregon Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 11, 26 05:19 PM

    
    Oregon railroad museums—the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, Brooks trolleys, Canby’s 1891 depot, Medford’s Willamette, and Train Mountain. Confirm hours on each site.

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50. Texas Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

    Oct 11, 26 05:15 PM

    
    Texas railroad museums—Frisco’s Big Boy 4018, Galveston’s Santa Fe depot, Temple’s 1911 station, Plano’s interurban, and Fort Worth & Denver 304. Confirm hours on each site.

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