Re: 59 Years and 1 day ago on the S.V.R.y

Bret,
Now that you've raised some questions, I've come up with several discrepincies as to retirement dates. First off, Emlaw says the 50 was retired the last day of December of '41 while the Alco's were out of service by the FIRST DAY of 41. Hmm. That means that according to Emlaw, the 50 was in service longer than the Alco's. Not likely. As for the question that's often raised of how did the 19 and 20 run after March of 1940 when their tenders had been drafted for use on the mallets my answer is that the swapped tenders with another loco, say the 50. (I have an idea that the 20 was in the shops for a month or so towards the end of her S.V. career but I can't really back it up. However, she was in good shape when she arrived on the White Pass whereas the 19 was in need of overhaul. This tends to indicate the possibility 19 was used right up until her sale. I dunno.)
Some other Emlaw paperwork I saw at Ron Harrs said that the 16, 17, 18 and the 50 were sold on 10/25/43. I guess it's possible they didn't ship them for nearly a year, until August of 44 when the 17 was finally listed as retired. Seems kind of odd though.
My thoughts are that the 19 and 20 went to White Pass the first part of '41. There again, I think that the White Pass had bought them or had dibs on them, for a time before they actually went up there. I think this because I was talking to a former seceratary who worked in South Baker from '35 until late '39 and she said that they had sold an engine to a road up in Alaska just before she left.
You have a good point on the turntable and not being able to keep the Baldwins out of the weather if they sold the turntable before they were retired. However, I have seen a picture of the enginehouse (sometimes referred to as the carshops, but you know, the building still standing next to the storehouse down in Baker) with the tender of the 250 and the 17 visible.
Lots of questions but very few answers.