In July, 2008 we agreed to acquire two historic steam-era freight cars owned by the Heritage Junction Museum in McCloud. The cars had been sitting in the McCloud Railway yard for years and were slowly deteriorating. With the McCloud Railway pulling up trackage and its future unclear, the cars needed a new home. In October, we moved both cars - an ex-Sacramento Northern wood boxcar (SN 2349) and an ex-Pacific Fruit Express iced refrigerator car (PFE 55224) to Black Butte. We again used the services of the Carlton Company in Burney to accomplish the move. Click here for photos and a description of the move.

We intend to use these cars as a resource center/rail-oriented library/info shop and as a community arts/project space for visitors to Black Butte. We plan to eventually host art shows in these cars and to use them for special events, including live music and films. At the same time, we will work to preserve the historic character of both cars.

Our boxcar was built in late 1919 by the Mount Vernon Car Manufacturing Company in Mount Vernon, Illinois as one of a 25-car (originally numbered ^#2129-2153) order for the Sacramento Northern. It is of a similar style to other Mount Vernon boxcars delivered to the Western Pacific in 1918-1919. It was delivered to the Sacramento Northern Railroad in January, 1920 and numbered ^#2150. It was "retired" in 1947 but not scrapped. The next year it was restored to service with AB brakes, and renumbered 2349 (part of SNRY 2329-2350). In 1954 it was converted to a maintenance of way (MOW) car and renumbered MW90. It was then retired in March, 1974 and sold to Tracy Railcar. It was then resold to "The Factory", a boutique development in Alameda circa 1974/75. When "The Factory" failed about 1979, the car was apparently sold to a railfan who moved it first to Santa Rosa and then on to the property of the McCloud River Railroad. The owner had hoped to donate the car to a non-profit organization and at one time the MCRR had considered forming a non-profit branch. However, this did not happen and the car was eventually donated to the Heritage Junction Museum in McCloud. For many years the car sat in the "runaround track" yard east of McCloud. However, it, as well as our reefer, were used on occasional steam photo freight excursions.

The reefer was owned by Pacific Fruit Express, a company formed in 1907 and jointly owned by Southern Pacific and Union Pacific. A reefer is a slang term for an iced refrigerator car. It has four rooftop hatches through which ice would be loaded in order to keep produce cool. PFE reefers would often be loaded in central California and travel eastward, all the way to Chicago and beyond, with loads of California-grown fruit and vegetables.

PFE 55224 was built for the Western Pacific in 1923 or 1924. The first group was PFE 50001-52000. In 1924 52001-52775 were added. Both groups were clones of PFE's R-30-13 design (1913 cubic feet), except the first group had Hutchins metal roofs. These cars were fully integrated with the PFE fleet, which assigned them and performed the maintenance, they were never specifically assigned to WP service. They did, however, carry the WP herald instead of the SP and UP heralds of other PFE cars.

Site preparation, acquisition, and the move of the cars to Black Butte has been an expensive undertaking, costing over $10,000. Thanks to the contributions of many supporters, we have already raised a good percentage of this amount. However, we still need further assistance to cover the full costs of the move as well as for the restoration and reconditioning costs for the cars in 2009. If sufficient resources are found, this may include a solar power system for both cars. Please see our "Helping Out" page and consider making a contribution if you are able to do so. We will also be looking for volunteers to help out with work on these cars starting in late Spring, 2009.