Re: 99 Years Ago April 20th on the SVRy

It took me a while to realize that the empty lumber were flat cars that could come back as either log or lumber loads. Too bad they didn't list how many standard gauge cars the switch engine was moving out of the mill.

Traffic seems to be lighter than I expected. Perhaps the woods are slow due to spring break up and muddy conditions? The trains losing time due to soft track helps support this, and since weather is not specifically mentioned it could also be rainy. These seem to be just an executive summary, the dispatcher sheets would tell more. The concentrated effort to dump gravel might be in part to improve track conditions and the availability of engines and crews.

It looks like 50 made its test run, then stayed in the shop tho have some final adjustments and parts glued (back) on before being assigned to work train service. Today's report is somewhat misleading. Looking at the previous day, the 18 tied up at Larch while 50 was at Whitney. The crews apparently traded engines at some point with 18 returning to So. Baker leaving 50 tied up at Larch. Evidently they are keeping 50 in nice slow service to break it in, and probably to get an idea as to what tonnage it can handle.

It is interesting that the Austin and Whitney "helpers" are actually roustabout jobs that can help trains, make turns to the summits, or perform work or local service besides presumably switching the mills. If these were regularly bulletined jobs they probably went pretty high in seniority as this type of work usually paid pretty good.