Re: SVR Narrow to Standard conversion?

Without looking up actual dates, it might be that when the NCO began converting the SV considered following suit. Had this proposal actually happened it would have created a bridge line between the UP in Oregon and the CP/SP in Nevada, though it is now debateable whether the traffic would have warrented the expense.

There would have been some advantage for traffic arriving or departing on the UP, but this was relatively small and consisted mostly of LCL and mining/milling equipment or supplies. They might have thought the mining boom would last longer than it did, but history should have told them this was seldom the case. Sawmilling did outlast the railroad, the very last revenue train was three carloads of machinery for Oregon Lumber Co., but this traffic would never have justified the expense. The lumber that was the primary traffic was all off loaded at Baker for further processing, and nearly all cattle shipments were to and from Baker Valley, so there was no trans-shipment involved with these commodities. (However, had the connection with the NCO happened there might have been some cattle shipments over this line, with connections East and West from Nevada.)

So there might have been some justification for converting but, as with the Rio Grande, the traffic did not warrent the cost. Why they thought it might, I have no idea.