Re: Sumpter Valley Number 20

Jim upon further research, I find I have a 9.9MB scan of the photo and can not see any smoke toward the rear, however I see something else in the larger scan. Looking over the top of the next to the last car I can see something sticking up further back that I suspect is a bit of caboose cupola and caboose smoke pipe. If that is the case then the train must be about 7-9 loads. I have a large collection of weight slips from the early 20's and typical flat car gross weight was 71,000-73,000lbs. This put the loads about 11,000 to 13,000 lbs.over the rated capacity of the cars which were mostly 40,000lbs. All the SVRy Mikes were rated 170 tons Whitney to Larch, so I have to agree that there is probably a helper behind the caboose.
In referring back to the Walter Grande Collection I think I may have answered the question of why they may be stopped or are about to. Grande must have followed engine 17 for a day starting in S.Baker as he has a shot of it on the turntable followed by various poses along the line such as at Boulder Gorge, backing up in to Sumpter, on the way up Larch with empties which must have been shot from the caboose, and the photo posted above which is also Oct.1939 at Larch. Presumably this was a meet at Larch between Ex17West and Ex20East. I wonder if 17 got there first and Grande was all set up with camera and tripod shooting across the tracks when 20 showed up prompting the premature stop.