For those who are unfamiliar with the Sumpter Valley Railroad, it is a narrow-gauge heritage railroad located in northeast Oregon. At this time the regular motive power is a 42-ton wood burning Heisler. Today was a very busy day with a large group of classic car afficianados riding round trip on the first train of the day from McEwen. The return train from Sumpter was about 15 minutes behind schedule, and consequently the second train from McEwen would be leaving a little behind schedule. During the run around when the locomotive is switched from one end of the train to the other, the crew planned to make a routine stop at the tower to take on water. As The fireman Cindy was climbing up on to the tank to let the engineer know when the locomotive was spotted one foot slipped between two pieces of fuel wood and was held enough that when she moved her other leg her balance was off and she slipped with one leg pinned while her weight transferred. The result ended up being a fracture above her ankle. Luckily there were several EMT trained passengers on hand to assist the fireman while the ambulance was called. Cindy was helped down from the locomotive to the depot platform at McEwen, and the first response group from Sumpter was on site within minutes and the ambulance from Baker City shortly thereafter. One of the main delays in regard to the schedule was getting a back-up fireman for the final run. The delay was kept to an absolute minimum, and considering the circumstances, a delay of an hour was understandable to the majority of the passengers. I apologize for the warm weather, but feel it is necessary to remind that there is a depot with seating as well as picnic shelters that provide shade at McEwen. And, while the train may have left an hour late, by condensing the schedule and layover, passengers arrived back at the station about 20 minutes later than usual.

As for how this will effect the railroad, we have filled out the necessary paperwork, and it will be filed with our monthly reports to the FRA. The Operations and Safety Committees will review the incident and decide what changes if any need to be made to insure that the chances of something of this nature happening again are kept to an absolute minimum. The trains will continue to operate as usual with the main problem being the loss of a good fireman likely for the duration of the season.

Cindy is out of hospital as of this evening and they determined that it is not a bad break. She will have a cast put on later in the week. We hope she will make a quick recovery and be back in the locomotive cab soon.

I hope your visit to the Sumpter Valley was otherwise enjoyable, and would hope that had this incident not occured that you would have found it worth your time to write a review of your visit.

Sincerely, Taylor Rush, SVRR President