Later Yreka Western 19, a much-traveled locomotive that even saw service in the Mexican revolution. What is its status today? Is it operable or under repair? Is it at McCloud or Yreka?

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/MCR19.JPG
ryarger@rypn.org

Bob,19 is Yreka Western these days. She ran last summer, but had to go in the shop for compliance with latest FRA rules. Bill Killion and his fireman are doing all the work (any volunteers in the area that want to help?) I'll try to get Bill to give you an update. The tunnel fire on CORP has severely impacted Y-W, and I recently saw a post somewhere that said work on 19 had stopped. Bill refers to 19 and 18 as "Poncho" and "Lefty" which I'll let him explain.

fitzrr@pioneer.net

Update on below...the #19 did not operate at all this past summer, as it is not in compliance with the new boiler regulations that went into effect last spring. The railroad's personnel did not get to do any work on the locomotive over the past spring/summer due to the operational demands of the YW (daily freights and passenger trains, all diesel powered) and a lot of track maintenance that was being done. The YW intended to work on the #19 this winter in hopes of having back under steam by spring, but the tunnel fire on CORP that severed the line ended most of YW's freight business, and the money that they were going to use to finance repairs on the #19 is no longer there (the railroad is hanging on by a thread, waiting for the tunnel to re-open).

As for the "Pancho and Lefty" thing...when the #19 arrived in McCloud from Mexico in 1924 the new owners found a few bullet holes in the boiler that were attributed to revolutionary war wounds, and the #19 was promptly named "Pancho" by the McCloud trainmen (this was the closest that any McCloud locomotive had to carrying a name until the late 1980's when SD38 #36 was at least un-officially named for former superintendent Sid Numa). The name has sort of stuck with the locomotive since. The #19 was replaced by diesels on the McCloud in 1953 and sold that same year to the YW...it has been back to McCloud twice since, once in 1963 or 1964 for a double header with McCloud #25 and a second time in 1994 when Trains Unlimited Tours brought the locomotive back to the McCloud for a weekend's worth of excursions over the line. And you can't forget the 18 or so years that the locomotive spent operating on the Oregon Pacific & Eastern out of Cottage Grove as their #19 (1970-1988).

Hope this helps.

JD Moore
Elko, NV

> Bob,19 is Yreka Western these days. She ran
> last summer, but had to go in the shop for
> compliance with latest FRA rules. Bill
> Killion and his fireman are doing all the
> work (any volunteers in the area that want
> to help?) I'll try to get Bill to give you
> an update. The tunnel fire on CORP has
> severely impacted Y-W, and I recently saw a
> post somewhere that said work on 19 had
> stopped. Bill refers to 19 and 18 as
> "Poncho" and "Lefty"
> which I'll let him explain.


http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
jamoore@elko.net