Re: SVRY #19

I thought it might be appropriate to reiterate that 19 going down for a year or even 2 at SVRR is not a crisis of the level to bring down the organization in my opinion. When 19 was restored to service at the Brooklyn Roundhouse in Portland, Ore. in 1995 the folks involved did not consider a Form 4 necessary as SVRy was not operating under FRA jurisdiction. In fact SVRy was subject to FRA oversight once the rr crossed Hwy 7 a public crossing, but in the late 1990's FRA had not asserted jurisdiction despite that crossing plus 2 more.
Fast forward to 1999, which was my 2nd year as an SVRy member and first year on the operating crew. The WH Eccles #3 Heisler was under restoration and in anticipation of going to Rail Fair in Sacramento it received a form 4. The engine was rather quickly reassembled in S.Baker with some restoration work postponed till after it's return from Rail Fair.
About 2002, SVRy was brought under full FRA (light) oversight. In order for 19 to continue to run, a Form 4 had to be generated and a waiver sought to give it it's full 15 years of flue time starting retroactive to 1995. It took nearly 2 full seasons to accomplish this.
During these 2 seasons the wood fired #3 was operated every weekend during the normal season with 3 round trips to Sumpter per day, with very few exceptions. I only recall one full day cancelled due to mech. problems. Due to high fire danger extraordinary measures were sometimes called for in order to operate. A few times due to high winds and extreme hot dry conditions we did not operate above Hwy 7.
I served as temporary Trainmaster for 4 weeks during one of these extreme fire danger periods. To meet all of the fire prevention and detection protocols thrown at us by St. Forestry we had to seeks additional volunteers each weekend. A normal volunteer crew is 5 persons. We needed a total of 8 each weekend to meet the requirement. With myself and Op.Mgr. Jerry Huck along with then SVRy Pres. Steve Christy also sometimes working on the crew we met these requirements. In August/Sep. it is typically more difficult to fill all crew positions, but our volunteers answered the call each time I sent out emails.
During the 2 years 19 was down wood was sometimes in short supply. I recall one day when I was fireman, a couple guys showed up at Sumpter with a pickup load of 4' wood which we loaded onto #3 at the depot stop. These were not regular SVRy volunteers, but rather members from the community that knew we were running short and wanted to help.
Keeping #3 running was sometimes challenging. Our CMO is as talented a mech. person as I've ever met. He however was working at a full time job as an automotive machinist and raising his family, so a number of us with mech. skills assisted him in keeping #3 running. It was pretty normal for the engineer and fireman to make minor mech. repairs, and go over the engine for critical loose bolts each day.
Most of the same people who kept the train running during those 2 years are still with SVRy, plus a number of new folks who are on the crew plus have mech. skill. SVRy has adopted a new schedule of 2 round trips per day except on the holiday weekends where 3 round trips are scheduled. This lighter schedule for the regular weekends would make running #3 a bit more economical and a lot easier on the engine crew. Assuming the 720 diesel is operational by the middle of next season, I can see no reason why the rr can't be operated fairly normally.
The above is as this 11 year member of SVRR sees the situation. The opinions are strictly my own.