Due to the Blizzard of 2013, I am stuck in the Pacific Northwest for a few days. I decided to take a chance and visit a place I had long admired from afar - the Sumpter Valley Railroad outside of Baker City, OR.
The SVRR is very similar to the WW&F, in that they have reconstructed a narrow gauge railroad on its original ROW. They are also a mostly-volunteer outfit.
I showed up at their yards at about 9am today (Sat., 2/9/2013), hoping to put in a day's work as a volunteer. I was greeted by Eric Wunz and his two dogs: Cinders and Ashes. While he has never visited the WW&F, he knew of us, and proceeded to give me the grand tour.
The SVRR has few active volunteers who are local. Plus, with no heat in the shop buildings, they pretty much shut down for the winter. So, there would be no real activities today - except for a BOD meeting off site.
Eric (with assistance from Ashes and Cinders) gave me a fine tour of their shops, facilities and equipment. We did move a few empty welding tanks into his truck for filling. I lingered around the grounds (with permission) a bit after he left, but with everything covered in snow, it was not worth the effort to do extended exploring.
I drove to the other end of their railroad - about 5 miles long - to Sumpter to see the HUGE gold dredging machine there. Again, everything was closed up, but worth seeing.
Finally, I learned that the SVRR depot in Baker City is restored as part of a "railroad park" along the UPRR main line. I checked that out, but nothing came through.
Photo by Eric Wunz. Note the WW&F cap.