Re: Sumpter maps, Switchbacks

I am putting in a long day here in my office and will just take time for a quick reply looking at the profile maps. Maybe I can post them tomorrow evening. Dixie summit is elevation 5236'. Upper sw. back starts at 5160 with the common point at 5146, The 2nd sw. back starts at 5130' with common point at 5115. The grade just below the summit varies from 3.76, 4.0, 3.96,3.76, and 3.88 in sw. back. The grade between the sw. backs is even 4% with the tail of the lower sw. back actually climbing at 4%. Below the lower sw. back in a fairly short distance the grade goes from 3.8, 4.0, 3.68 and 4.0. I have no idea why the different lengths of tail tracks. It would be interesting to measure them on the ground. In a recent thread, BCP posted a 1916 newspaper clip that announced survey work commencing on an extension from Dixie Summit to the country far to the S. The implication we discussed in that thread was that the new survey from Dixie was to achieve a completely new grade descending into the John Day Valley. The above figures on grade and the operational bottleneck of the switchbacks make it pretty clear why any substantial expansion of the rr required a better route off of the summit.