Re: Mallet?

Yes; the Sumpter Valley had plans of extending its mainline South of their current shops in McEwen another 5 miles to a State Park along Phillips Lake. This new trackage would have consisted of steeper grades then were on the current reconstructed grade going north from McEwen to Sumpter. So part of this extension plan included new passenger equipment and two new 2-6-6-2s. Stone Consulting was contracted to design the new route and the plans were delivered. We even raised $500,000 to get the whole project started.

However, with a change in management, these expansion plans were abandon and it was decided that the SVRR should focus its efforts on completing projects it already had underway before jumping to deeply into this new expansion project. And this "new" direction really made sense. We had a shop building that was not completed, a loop in Sumpter that was not completed, a number of rolling stock restoration projects that were not completed just to name a few. Even today, the SVRR is working to complete these projects but the idea of the "South Expansion" is not totally dead. Will a replica 2-6-6-2 be part of that plan in the future??? Hard to say. The 2-8-2s already on the SVRR would be able to handle the new 10 mile railway so replica 2-6-6-2s would be a great help but they may not be "needed". However, I believe there are still a few people around that may "want" to see them built anyways.