A bit of oral history from c. 1975. I was tying down ex-Calcasieu Paper #5, a small 2-6-2, on a flatcar alongside the IC main line adjacent to the gravel pit where the Spence collection had resided. A gentleman drove by on the adjacent highway, stopped and introduced himself as the last Master Mechanic who worked for Mr. Spence. I asked him about the collection. He told me that Mr. Spence had called him from Washington, DC after getting ICC approval to rebuild a connection between the MP at Baton Rouge, LA and the Southern Rwy at ?. Mr. Spence had already acquired the right of way, a logging operation as I recall. His project was supported by both the MP and Sou as a bypass around New Orleans and its long wooden trestle across a portion of Lake Ponchatrain. Mr. Spence had purchased the locomotive collection as power for the to be built railroad. However, his MM said that Mr. Spence told him that the MP and Sou wanted the overhead freight interchange trains hauled by Diesels. Mr. Spence had placed an order with Alco for three RS-3's. Mr. Spence apparently had a heart attack and died before leaving Washington. The MM said that the MP and Southern still were interested in the bypass and approached the heirs, the widow and two daughters, with an offer to build and operate the railroad. The heirs involvement would have been to cash their dividend checks. One daughter thought that was a good idea, the other two heirs did not, apparently preferring a bird in the hand, cash for scrap.
It is my understanding that Mr. Spence made his money in at least part with a patent for an automated welding system which hard-faced the interior wear surfaces of centrifigal pumps that moved a slurry of sand and water at gravel pits.
The MM said that they had recently converted an ex-TP 2-8-2 to one man operation. I believe it was oil-fired. At least one of the three NKP Hudsons arrived after Mr. Spence's demise. The locomotives had raised stainless steel numbers, some of which migrated to the pair of 2-8-0's operated by the Mississippian.
Calcasieu Paper #5 was never part of the Spence collection. It was purchased by the
photographer C. W. Witbeck and stored at the pit. My brother and I bought it from his widow when what became Michigan Northern was projected to be an excursion operation on the PRR's Traverse City Branch in Michigan.
Alex Huff