Sumpter Valley Railway
| Sumpter Valley Railway | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Locale | Sumpter, Oregon |
| Terminus | McEwen, Oregon |
| Commercial operations | |
| Name | Sumpter Valley Railway |
| Original gauge | 3 ft (914 mm) |
| Preserved operations | |
| Operated by | Sumpter Valley Railroad Restoration Inc. |
| Stations | 2 |
| Length | 5.1 miles (8.2 km) |
| Preserved gauge | 3 ft (914 mm) |
| Commercial history | |
| Opened |
1890 |
|
Sumpter Valley Railway Historic District
|
|
| Nearest city | Bates, Oregon |
| Area | 1,223.8 acres (495.3 ha) |
| Built | 1890 |
| NRHP Reference # | 87001065 |
| Added to NRHP | August 3, 1987 |
1890
The Sumpter Valley Railway, or Sumpter Valley Railroad, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge heritage railroad located in Baker County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Built on a right-of-way used by the original railway of the same name, it carries excursion trains on a roughly 5-mile (8.0 km) route between McEwen and Sumpter. The railroad has two steam locomotives and several other pieces of rolling stock. Passenger excursion trains operate on weekends and holidays from Memorial Day through the end of September.
The railway was incorporated in 1890 by David Eccles. The 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railway's initial purpose was to haul logs to a sawmill in South Baker City. The builders of the railway owned the Grande Ronde Lumber Company in Perry, Oregon, and the railway was financed by Mormons in Utah.
Much of the original equipment came from the Utah & Northern Railway in Idaho and Montana. The Union Pacific owned the line and began converting it to standard gauge around 1887. Eccles owned a significant amount of Union Pacific stock, exerting enough influence to acquire the now-unneeded narrow gauge equipment. The first locomotive to arrive was a small 4-4-0 numbered 285; the Sumpter Valley also purchased a number of the U&N's Brooks 2-6-0 locomotives, along with a large number of boxcars and flatcars. In 1906, the railroad also acquired four locomotives from the Tonopah Railway (later the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad).
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