Re: Sumpter Valley Railway

Dale,
The caboose has long been a controversy, but I assure you that it is red. Mallorey probably just went by the B&W photo. When the caboose was retrieved from the Haines museum in 1980, it had it's origional coat and was red. The box and stock cars should be the same color, to the best of my knowledge, but I'm not going to say they all were. One of the cars photos may also have been in a different light, or even just had a faded coat of paint when the those were taken. That photo of the combine appears to be fairly early, and the cars may have still been green then. I had forgotten about that photo of the Prairie City depot, it is indeed white and I believe it was that color through it's whole career. It has been restored now and is red and black. All the other depots were the standard red and black though, Prairie City was the odd-ball. I believe Mallorey is wrong about the coaches arriving pink, they were most likely painted that color later on, and were origionally olive green. I think the sawmill at Whitney was always unpainted, if it wasn't it is now. I actually don't know if any of the sawmills were painted, they don't really look like they are in photos. The smelter wasn't painted, but it had a red roof. The diamond window in the station is not origional. I believe there were two windows there at one time, as the building was almost identical on both sides. Hope this helps.
Thanks Again, Taylor