Re: Sumpter Valley Railroad track layout for a model railroad: Baker, Whitney. etc.

There are a number of sites I have found that had water tanks along the various logging spurs of the Sumpter Valley Railway Empire. One on Dean Creek, one on the Curry line, one on Black Mtn, one on Trout Creek, two on the Oregon Lumber Company Middle Fork John Day River trackage, along with dozens of places in the streams and creeks where work had been done to allow the locomotives to drop their syphon hoses into the creek and fill up. I have seen the remains of a number of wooden boxes, maybe 6' long and 1 1/2' wide and 2' tall (guesses based on a spotty memory) that were buried in the creek next to the RoW or used as a water trough in conjunction with some pipe, sometimes set above the row on a hill to get it above the locomotive. As I am thinking about it I realize most of the boxes were located along creeks or springs that did not run much water. Don't remember seeing any along a good water supply. I suspect most of the watering sites were built exactly the same way kids build them today, throwing rocks to build a dam until a good amount of water is held, throw the syphon hose in and fill locomotive, repeat as needed rebuilding dams after large rainstorms and spring thaws. Brian