Re: SVR #50

I am sure during the wood burning years a hostler was on duty. On a dispatchers sheet I have, from 1924, engine 19 is in service out of Austin. You will note on the crew call board we have on display at the Sumpter depot one of the crews is "Austin Night Helper" which is what 19's job was called. The crew made multiple trips from Austin to Tipton moving loads East 5 cars at a time, then finally made a single trip with the assembled cars to Whitney. This crew upon return to Austin in the wee hours turned 19 over for service so it could go out again with a morning crew. As Taylor points out, after conversion to oil one can just shut the fire off for the night and relight in the morning. 19 will hold steam all night with plenty of steam for light off in the morning. Likely the engine crew could deal with oiling around and greasing before the return trip.