Livestock On The Sumpter Valley Ry.

When you think of the Sumpter Valley Ry. it is natural to think of narrow gauge log and lumber trains because that is the primary industry that this railroad was built to serve. Sure we see photos of the daily passenger train, but here is a shot of another commodity that seems to have been seasonally pretty important. Moving livestock from the high country to the stock yard in Baker continued right up into the 1940's with the big articulated engines. In fact the railroad built seven new stock cars in 1941. In this shot we see Caboose #6 which survives at SVRR and stock cars #2007 and #2023 at Baker. It looks like #2007 might be hauling sheep. #2007 predates the 1916 valuation and was retired in 1947. #2023 was built in March of 1917 and retired 1947. There are at least a half a dozen surviving stock cars, but because the number was painted onto smallish boards placed on the side which are either missing today, or too faded to read, I don't think we are certain about any of the original numbers of the surviving car bodies. The scan is from the SVRR Archive.