The McCloud Railway was a class III railroad operated around Mount Shasta, California. It began operations on July 1, 1992, when it took over operations from the McCloud River Railroad. The MCR was incorporated on April 21, 1992. The MCR provided both freight service as well as passenger excursion trains like the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train. Freight traffic consisted of outbound lumber and forest products as well as diatomaceous earth. Approximately 3,000 carloads of freight (1996 estimate) were handled annually. The MCR interchanged with the Union Pacific (formerly Southern Pacific) at Mount Shasta, California, and the BNSF (formerly the Burlington Northern, née Great Northern Railway) at Lookout, California. On June 27, 2005, the railroad applied with the Surface Transportation Board to abandon all MCR track beyond east of McCloud. During the railroad's last stand during 2009 and 2010, their only source of revenue was due to the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train. However, due to the Financial crisis of 2007-2008, the railroad shut down in January 2010, selling off the last steam locomotive, McCloud River Railroad #25, and also sold off all but two of their diesel locomotives. The railroad stayed shut down but not abandoned through the rest of the 2010s. After a management change in 2021, the railroad will reopen for railcar storage. The time for which the line will be open is unknown. Route The railroad operated on of track. The principal line ran from Mount Shasta to Bartle. At Bartle, the Burney Branch headed south. The MCR also had a branch running from Bartle to Hambone. At Hambone the ownership changed to BNSF (Great Northern) but was operated by the McCloud River Railroad. That line extended to Lookout Junction where it connected with the Great Northern Railway mainline just north of Bieber. History The MCR was originally built as the McCloud River Railroad chartered on January 22, 1897, as a forest railway bringing logs to the company sawmill on the Southern Pacific Railroad at a place called Upton a few miles north of Mount Shasta. Originally, locomotives were borrowed from the Southern Pacific, but in 1902, the railroad received their first locomotive, number 1. By 1901 the company sawmill was moved to McCloud, and the distance for hauling lumber produced at McCloud was reduced to by shifting the junction south to Mount Shasta in 1906. The locomotives shifted from wood to oil fuel as the railroad extended