McCloud River No. 18

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The McCloud River Railroad No. 18 is a 2-8-2 built by Baldwin in 1914 for the McCloud River Railroad at McCloud, CA.
It was built for freight service on the McCloud River Railroad when the unit was sent to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco during 1915.
In 1956, as McCloud Railway was acquiring newer diesels from Baldwin, they retired their elderly steam locomotive fleet including #18. The locomotive was sold (like many McCloud steam locomotives at the time) to Yreka Western Railroad, a small, power-starved railroad also in Northern California. The unit was operated with sister #19 at Yreka until 1964, when the unit suffered a cylinder failure on a special trip and was sidelined.
The locomotive was restored to operation at McCloud in 1998, and quickly became the favorite unit as it was bigger and stronger than #25 and handled the large grades on the road better. In 2005, with the imminent demise of the McCloud Railway as a financial entity, the unit was sold to Virginia and Truckee Railroad as an excursion locomotive where it runs today.
==Trivia==
*It has been used in the film "Water for Elephants" to pull the Benzini Brothers' Circus train. Not only #18 also Tennessee Valley Railroad No. 610.
*The display was jointly sponsored by McCloud Railway, Weed Lumber Company and Red River Lumber Company. The unit was then returned to McCloud, where it lived out most of its life.
*The unit languished in Yreka until 1998, when the McCloud Railway bought the unit to assist 25 in railfan trips.
*The Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad acquired the #18 in 2005, and it entered revenue service on July 24, 2010.
==Gallery==
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Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:American locomotives
Category:2-8-2 locomotives
Category:2-8-2 steam locomotives
Category:Eight-coupled locomotives
Category:Baldwin locomotives
Category:Built in 1914
Category:Locomotives featured in media
Category:McCloud Railway Engines
Category:Freight locomotives
Category:Locomotives
Category:United States
Category:Standard gauge locomotives
Category:Preserved steam locomotives
Category:Excursion locomotives