Re: Sumpter Valley - Tenders & Fuel

John: I measured the 19 tender tank and calculated the cu. area of the fuel space in the tender, then compared dimensions that I took Sunday to some photos of the tender laoded and scaled them to come up with the cu. ft. of wood stored on top. In the most loaded phot I could find, it appears that the tender was loaded to 75" above the tender deck. What I arrived at was 9.4 cords total. I would however call it an even 9 cords as the top of the pile was somewhat rounded. In the photos they appear to cover the water hatch with wood. I suppose by the time they were to the point of watering up, they had burned a pile of wood out of the front and could then transfer wood from over the hatch to the front. The labor required to run a RR as busy as the SVRy was throughout much of it's life burning wood is staggering to consider!
Back on the subject of helper engines I was thinking that the photo I've seen with a pusher in the rear probably is an indication that they would have cut the helper off at the top of Larch summit on the east bound loaded trains. The wye had a pretty short tailtrack on the summit probably just for turning one engine. Just a guess though.
It would be interesting to see an employee timetable from the mid 20 when some of the consolidations were still operating and the line went over the 3rd summit to Prarrie to get a feel for what their procedures might have been with the smaller power.