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

Thanks Casey. I don't have the 1917 valuation report here at work, but it seems to me there were phones at quite a few locations. I think there was a phone at all of the water tanks that were in service plus one at Larch, one at Alder Springs, plus of course each of the depots. It seems reasonable to think that when a logging line joined the SVRy main, a ph. would have been set up in order to facilitate/coordinate the movement of non SVRy engines or equipment between logging locations. This would be a good question for Mr. Endicott. Ron Harr gave me a copy of a photo that perhaps you also have or have seen of one of the early combines being used as a depot somewhere along the line and you can see the phone were strung to it. I wonder where this was?
It would be interesting to compare operations seasonally, but also at various periods of time as I am sure things changed from year to year, decade to decade. I'd love to see the conductors reports that covered the great snow plowing operation that took a couple days to free the 2 stranded trains on Larch. I have a feeling they exceeded their 16 hours.