I can only speak to the fact that Nelson had several different entities that held equipment, and it seems his business prowess left most things in good hands. He was tremendously prolific in his for-profit work, his trains and his preaching.

I got to New England too late to meet Nelson, but his legend still embraced Steamtown in the early 1970's. I have heard his Sunday sermons in the trains were something to experience. A friend who had the pleasure of riding in the cab with Nelson loves to recall that there was more fire (along with brimstone) from Nelson than there was in the firebox.

He must have been quite an interesting fellow.

What seesm to be lost to history are the names of the many men who took a risk on saving steam by opening their pockets.

Blount, Spence and the Doc from St. Louis (can't remember his name offhand) are the most famous because of the size of their collections. There were others. George Hart was insturmental in at least 4 locomotives not meeting the torch. The Striegels have quite a history. The Kovalchicks (sp?) are on the list, too.

Bob Richardson, the Knott's family and so many others stepped forward in the 50's and 60's to collect what they could.

More? Sure... Ellis D. Atwood, Edgar T. Mead...

We can discuss till the cows come home about what should be done with certain locomotives, but imagine how many fewer engines we'd have to chew the fat about it were not for these people!

Rob Davis

Ahead of the Torch
trains@robertjohndavis.com

>
> I got to New England too late to meet
> Nelson, but his legend still embraced
> Steamtown in the early 1970's.

> What seesm to be lost to history are the
> names of the many men who took a risk on
> saving steam by opening their pockets.

I knew Blount, and you are right, he put his money where his mouth was! Not long before he was killed he had put $700,000 of his own money into steam engine preservation/operation. That was when a dollar was worth a lot more than now. In today's dollar maybe .. what? $3-4-5 Million??

Vermont was NOT friendly to tourist businesses, nor were some of the local business people who thought Blount was getting rich from handouts. I set one motel/restaurant owner straight when I advised him of the cost of ties, and how many per mile (close to 3,000) and the fact that our family stay in his establishment for a week was solely due to the steam train, otherwise we wouldn't be anywhere near Vermont. He would have another vacancy to go along with the others he had as he did not have No Vacancy sign on when we were there. Blount was pleased I laid it out to that guy as it turned out he was a big mouth against Blount getting a little help for track work.

Blount once said, as he was working around in the cab of 127 (CPR 1278) during a stop for servicing on a run where many people were standing looking down at the steam engine, that he wished he was one of those people. Having the pleasure of seeing the steam engine working, but having none of the expense, work and worry.
Truer words were never spoken!



Old Time Trains
oldtimetrains@rrmail.com

> I can only speak to the fact that Nelson had
> several different entities that held
> equipment, and it seems his business prowess
> left most things in good hands. He was
> tremendously prolific in his for-profit
> work, his trains and his preaching.

> I got to New England too late to meet
> Nelson, but his legend still embraced
> Steamtown in the early 1970's. I have heard
> his Sunday sermons in the trains were
> something to experience. A friend who had
> the pleasure of riding in the cab with
> Nelson loves to recall that there was more
> fire (along with brimstone) from Nelson than
> there was in the firebox.

> He must have been quite an interesting
> fellow.

> What seesm to be lost to history are the
> names of the many men who took a risk on
> saving steam by opening their pockets.

> Blount, Spence and the Doc from St. Louis
> (can't remember his name offhand) are the
> most famous because of the size of their
> collections. There were others. George Hart
> was insturmental in at least 4 locomotives
> not meeting the torch. The Striegels have
> quite a history. The Kovalchicks (sp?) are
> on the list, too.

> Bob Richardson, the Knott's family and so
> many others stepped forward in the 50's and
> 60's to collect what they could.

> More? Sure... Ellis D. Atwood, Edgar T.
> Mead...

> We can discuss till the cows come home about
> what should be done with certain
> locomotives, but imagine how many fewer
> engines we'd have to chew the fat about it
> were not for these people!

> Rob Davis

**************************************************

Speaking of steam locomotives and "Keepers of the flame", many of you may know that Steam was alive and well in Ohio over the past weekend.

The Ohio Central had a another one of its great passenger excursions, this one from Columbus to Sugarcreek and return, last weekend.

I dusted off my video camera and caught Ohio Central's 4-8-4 #6325 (1942 ALCO) storming into East Columbus just after dark on Saturday evening.

The excursion arrived after I shot a most beautiful sun-set over the former PRR "Lines West" Pan Handle main line. The sound of the "crickets" in the evening air made the visit and adventure all so alive.

The mighty whistle of #6325 arriving at east Columbus rose the hair on the back of my neck.

I finally drove up to Yearling Road to
catch the crew action on the ground as the mighty Northern was lubricated and checked over.

I gotta hand it to the many crew members on the Ohio Central excursion who were busy with the fine operation of the run and made a great day of the entire operation for everyone. Top job!

This made my day, to say the least.

Hats off and a long pull on the whistle cord to Ohio Central's CEO Jerry Jacobson and his fine crew who have laboriously brought back yet another steam engine to life.

Keepers of the flame in Ohio.....Fall, 2002

Ron Widman, Columbus

Ohio Central RR Steam Department.

By the "Doc" from St. Louis, I believe that you are referring to "Doc" Roberts, (after whom the MOT's Roberts Building is named.) There are similarities to his role and to Mr. Blount's, I'm sure, but there are also pronounced differences. The Museum of Transport was from the beginning a seperate entity, and the collection was always, to my knowledge, held by the museum of which Mr. Roberts was simply the director. (Also probably it's chief benefactor.) And though the museum has it's share of historic mistakes, to the best of my knowledge, no significant pieces have ever been scrapped.

Sioncerely,
David Ackerman

david_ackerman@yahoo.com

Steve Bogen, Jay Wulfson, Bill Whitehead, Sam Freeman, Dick Jensen. All names that sould be remembered as being among the pioneers in the late 50s-early 60s.

hpincus@mindspring.com

Let's also add to this list Ed and Murray Clark of Clark's Trading Post up in northern NH. Thanks to them we can see a Climax operate everyday in the summer and a Heisler and Porter on occasion. A Shay is in storage, and a Baldwin is nearing the end of its restoration. One more locomotive is in storage on the property. They started the "green pastures for iron horses" in the early 60's where they had the foresight to safe steam power in as many forms as posible as they saw it was disappearing. Thanks to Ed, we have another stationary steam engine at the machinery club in Kent, CT that's being set up now. This engine used to sit on ther Main St. and was put there when that was the extent of the park in the 60's. It was removed to make room for renovations. BTW, the Heisler's boiler had repairs done to it at the B&M shops in Portland,ME.

Other steam they have is a number of Buffalo rollers, misc. steam engines, and other such things found in their museums.

Murray has two sawmills behind his house with one of them being steam powered.


Clark's Trading Post

Ray,
among his many unusual interests, Ed Clark was building small hydro-electric power plants at one time, do you happen to know if any of them are still in operation?



SJHussar@aol.com

Stephen,

I could be wrong on this, but wasn't Ed Clark involved with the waterwheel installation for the Mt Washington Cog shops after the State of NH shutdown their steam plant?

Glenn


Railways of the Far South
christensenge@yahoo.com

Steve,

Ed and his son Tom still run hydro stations. I'm pretty sure they are in Littleton, Lisbon and possibly one other place in NH that I don't recall at the moment.

Ray

> Ray,
> among his many unusual interests, Ed Clark
> was building small hydro-electric power
> plants at one time, do you happen to know if
> any of them are still in operation?


Clark's Trading Post