Jim Grigsby Wrote:
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> It is fun to daydream about things like this. At
> the Sumpter Valley we like to dream about running
> trains from Prairie City-John Day, and hauling car
> loads of lumber with steam. But it is not going
> to happen. Even though lumber still makes the
> trip by truck, if the rails were restored (by some
> unimaginable scheme) the haul would be with
> diesel. Lets face it, steam is just too
> expensive. Whitepasser has it right: The vast
> majority of their passengers, and ours as well, do
> not care what type of locomotive is on the point.
> Indeed a lot of them do not know the difference.
> We had one passenger who, appon being told that
> the locomotive burned oil, responded with "I
> thought it ran on steam". I don't think he ever
> did grasp the idea that it takes a fire to make
> the steam. The point of this is that running all
> steam on the White Pass, and some other lines as
> well, would make no difference in income while
> drastically increasing the operating expense.
> This is the main reason the Sumpter Valley is
> restoring a 50 ton GE, a first cousin to the SP
> "Little Giant". As an historic restoration we are
> still committed to operating steam, but we need
> about 40 passengers per trip to break even and
> there are times when we do not get that many.
> Further, it takes about as much fuel to get up
> steam as it does to make a trip to Sumpter. There
> is also the question of availability. It takes
> about 5 hours to get our #19 ready to operate,
> whereas a diesel can be ready in minutes. While
> none of these problems are insurmountable with
> steam there is a reason the big railroads went to
> diesel. For them, for the White Pass, and for the
> rest of us, the final question is still the bottom
> line.
Yes, but it is fun to dream. I'm just glad the C&T and D&S are still doing steam.
