Re: 80 years ago on the Sumpter Valley...

Bret,
I only have one S.V.Ry dispatchers sheet, it's about four feet long by two and a half or three feet tall and has catagories for everything. As far as dispatchers go, they had two working, one from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the second trick from 2 to 10. It's interesting that you should mention phones, as there is a catogory for them in which the dispatcher had written, "okay". Somewhere I read that the Sumpter Valley had field phones as well the actual booths that you mentioned.
I, for one, would be very interested to see some of the info. from your Conductors Reports put together to give an idea of the daily ops. 300 reports has to be one of the most comprehensive collections of S.V. train movements in existence. I have three from Dec. of 1925, we should compare notes backchannel to see if anything changed in the way of consists when winter set in.
No idea on how switching was carried out...