I second what Dan has stated about the complexity and breadth of writing a serious work on the SVRy. I personally have fantasized about writing it, but doubt it would ever happen. I know 2 SVRR members who have talked seriously about it. These 2 folks and myself have visited about format for such a book, in that it might be a work that would take several volumes. The books on the RioGrande Southern were an example we talked about, though I have not read them myself. If someone wants to just write a coffee table book on the SVRy, long on photos, but short on historical data, then with acess to some of the photo collections that are mostly in private hands, one could put something together probably more easily. On the other hand, if one wants to produce a work of the quality of the Colorado Rail Annuals, or Robert Turners books such as "Across the Great Divide" and "The Skyline Limited" that really digs into the details behind the scenes in terms of economics, politics, aspirations of the movers and shakers, the employees, the equipment, general background on the the communities served over time, etc., it would be a major work. For those not at all familiar with SVRy and it's 80 miles of mainline, this might seem overblown. To counter this, I would point out that SVRy was only a small part of a much bigger financial empire that included the Oregon Lumber Co, Stoddard Lumber Co, various lumber companies headed by CW Nibley, but related in many cases in terms of ownership interests to the aforementioned, mining operations in Utah, lumber and rr operations on the west side of Oregon that included the Mt. Hood Ry., The Oregon American Lbr. Co., establishment of a power company at Baker, sugar beets and sugar refining in Utah, the Utah Construction Co. which was involved in many serious construction ventures including I believe Hoover Dam, and I suspect we could brainstorm and add to this list. While a work on SVRy, does not need to relate the specific history of these many ventures, in order to understand the relative importance, or unimportance at a particular time of SVRy, some reference and observation of what was going on in this empire is needed. In focusing on SVRy, it would be difficult to avoid a serious history of Oregon Lumber Co, including it's operations elswhere. SVRy for example was carried on the books of OLC initially, so they are very closely related. Similarly any study of SVRy would have to encompass a study of the major railroad logging companies that connected with SVRy. OLC of course, but Stoddard as well as Baker White Pine. These enties had interesting rosters of equipment and all had extensive track systems in the woods. Each of these entities would require more than just a chapter if you really want to dig into the what when and where of their operations. To carry the complexity further, in providing local background, one would need to look at some of the early proposals that were on the table for other rr's to tap the mining and logging country in the Baker area. For a time mining was an important element in the economic picture for SVRy. It provided a great many loads of mining machinery in and ore out, not to mention the general supplies that would have come as LCL and express to Sumpter once a town of several thousand during the mining boom of the late 1890's through early 1900's. One could easily write more than one chapter on this element of the big picture keeping it related to SVRy.
For anyone interested, I would recommend reading "Rails Sagebrush and Pine" for an overview which best describes this book, and also read "Switchback to the Timber" which focuses on Mt Hood RR, but has nearly as much material that is pertinent to a grasp of the bigger picture concerning OLC and sVRy, Stoddard Lbr. and later ownership of these entities by the Lighthall family after the depression.
