99 Years Ago April 3rd on the SVRy

Looks like the railroad was again fighting soft track and green wet wood. Interesting that two trains are operated with two engines. Perhaps the difficulty with delays due to wet wood prompted using a helper on these regular trains. The Austin Night Helper shown in this report also appear in other extant reports in 1924. The Night Helper job was simply to work as many loads as one engine could handle to points east over the course of the night. This procedure appears to result in loads staged for pick up at the small yard at Larch Summit which the following days regular east bound freight would pick up and take to Baker. Of further note is the hours worked by the swithing crew in Baker which is 12 1/2. That must have been a tedious daily routine.