All decorated up with Christmas lights for the season, McCloud's wooden caboose sits at the site of the old depot in downtown McCloud.
Photo # caboose1
Caboose 102 rests in the McCloud yard. The tank on the flat car was used by the railroad for storage of sand. Thanks to Jeff Moore for correcting my assumption that it was a water car (despite the fact it is clearly labeled "Sand Car" at the far end of the tank!)
Photo # caboose102
To quote Jeff for more information regarding the McCloud's sand cars, "Although the tank car body mounted on a flat looks like a water car, it is not a water car. It is a sand car. The McCloud used to have a large hopper permanently mounted next to the sand tower, but at some point in the mid-1970's the hopper was torn down and replaced by at first one, then two sand cars, both of them being tank car bodies mounted on flats like this one. The two flats were MR #821 and #823, although the sand cars were numbered 540 and 541 (although the 821 and 823 were also applied...go figure). Apparently these cars, when empty, were taken out to Lookout and handed off to the BN, who returned them full a week or so later. By around 1990 the tank on the #823 was removed and the flat was turned back to m-o-w uses (it currently is the boom car for MCR #70, the Orton crane). The #821 remained in sand service until a second hopper was built around 1995, at which time the sand body was removed and the flat was turned into a heavy equipment transport flat."
Jeff has pictures of these cars at various points in their careers on his website at: http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/Equipment/MCR821.html http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/Equipment/MCR823.html
You can see the hopper that replaced the sand cars in the photo on the top of this page: http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/Equipment/Equipment.html
After its paint job, the 102 on active duty at the Mt. Shasta yard in March 1996
Photo # mar96mtshastacaboose
Photo # mar96mscaboose-2
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