SV track diagrams, ICC valuation reports, etc.

It is unfortunate but true that much of the history of the Sumpter Valley Railway is either scattered or lost. Almost all of the corporate records were destroyed, and the few fragments that remain are in obscure locations, often uncatalogued and in some cases "missing," either through carelessness or willful pilferage.
Consequently, the SV is not nearly as well documented as many of the other historical narrow gauge railroads. Mallory Hope Ferrell’s book, Rails, Sagebrush and Pine, published in 1967, is the best available history of the SV, with several fine photographs. Unfortunately, it does not have track diagrams other than an overall system map, and it does not provide much technical and historical information on freight and passenger rolling stock. It also has very little information about how the railroad was operated. It is hoped that "someday" those deficiencies may be remedied by either an updated edition or an entirely different work by another author. In the meantime, we are grateful for Mallory Ferrell’s book. Without it, there would be very little to go on in the public domain.
Rumor has it that one of our members has gathered together, over the years, enough information about track configurations along the SV that he is planning to publish an article, with drawings, in one of the model railroad magazines. Don’t look for it any time soon, but it will happen.
The ICC valuation survey that is available from the SVRR gift shop is the Structural survey. It contains much useful and interesting information about depots, bridges, water tanks, tool houses, etc., but there are no track maps in it.
I recently learned from Rick Steele that records of other forms of the ICC valuation surveys are kept at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. It is possible, even likely, that for the SV they could include the Track (or Right-of-Way) notes, depot inventories, and descriptions of rolling stock. It remains to be seen what is actually there.
Several members of the Sumpter Valley Railroad Restoration group are interested in the history of the road, and collectively they possess a great wealth of information. Perhaps someday it can all be pooled together and published as a comprehensive and definitive history of this remarkable little railroad.