> Any of the West Side Lumber shays?

All 7 of the WSL Shays have been preserved and most are operational.

The Georgetown Loop RR at Silver Plume, CO has Shays 8, 12, and 14.

The Yosemite Mountain-Sugar Pine RR at Fish Camp, Ca has Shays 10 and 15.

The Roaring Camp & Big Trees RR at Felton, CA has Shay 7.

The Midwest Central RR at Mount Pleasant, IA has Shay 9.

I too grew up on the Ziel/Eagleson/Foster books, but I'm old enough to say that I bought them new when they first came to print!

If you're looking for copies, I've seen them offered by dealers at model train shows such as The Greenberg Shows (various locations) and The Great Scale Train Show (Timonium, MD). These shows are coming up the next couple months. I guess check on ebay as well.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

> Any engines from the SC granite railroad
> featured on page 108?

One minor addition to what Dave said: Rockton-Rion 2-8-2 #19 is in the museum in Greenwood, SC; R-R 2-8-2 #31 is on display in Waycross, GA. Ex-ACL 2-8-0 #712 is at the museum in Winnsboro, SC. R-R 2-8-0 #203 (I don't believe this one appears in the book) is currently listed as residing in Knoxville, TN.

Good Steaming,
Hugh Odom

The Ultimate Steam Page
whodom@awod.com

Got the book as a birthday gift when I was about 13! Shortly afterward, Ziel and Foster wrote their LIRR epic, "Steel Rails to the Sunrise". I wrote Ron a fan letter when I was about 15 and to my great surprise, he telephoned me at home and asked if I would like to go with him and his brother Bobby, up to Steamtown. I FLEW! Ron introduced me to Nelson Blount and got me a cab ride in Rahway Valley #15, with Blount at the throttle. We became fast friends after that and ROn was a frequent guest in my parents home. I spent many weekends out at his home in the Hamptons, using his negatives and darkroom to make prints of locomotives I would never get to see. We took many steam safari's together, spent hours laughing, planning out a proposed tourist line that never got built, and generally living in steam locomotive heaven. I was too young to accompany him on his last few Mexico trips, but you should have seen the stockpile of locomotive parts this man had stacked in his backyard.
Since those years, Ron has been a prolific author on topics closely related to Long Island's history, including the railroad, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Spanish American War. He was instrumental in restoring CPR #2839 and saving BEDT #12 from scrap, along with hundreds of priceless artifacts. Ron has his detractors, but his love of railroad history and steam locomotives in particular has opened the field of railroad preservation to thousands of others who might have otherwise missed the hobby.
Incidently, he chronicled acres of steam locomotive at Northwestern Steel and Wire, in Sterling Illinois. Those photos include hundreds of GTW, CB&Q, and NKP, lined up coupler to coupler and being taken piecemeal to the furnaces. A Ziel book on lost American steam would be a journey that would reveal much about what might have been saved under different circumstances.


glueck@maine.edu

Found one here on Ebay. Though I'd share...

Jeff Lisowski
West Chester, Pa

Twilight book on Ebay
unfunkyufo76@hotmail.com

Excuse me. Never did know the difference. Only those associated with U of M called it South Campus. The zoo was at Crandon Park where it is really supposed to be.

When I was a kid we called it a blimp base, but then Dadeland was a cow pasture, Goulds was a collection of shacks, and Lindsley Lumber marked the southern outpost of greater Miami.

So what is the difference anyhow?

dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> When I was a kid we called it a blimp base,
> but then Dadeland was a cow pasture, Goulds
> was a collection of shacks, and Lindsley
> Lumber marked the southern outpost of
> greater Miami.

> So what is the difference anyhow?

> dave

Blimp is the Gummint-ease for "Balloon-Limp", just a big shaped bag of gas. A Dirigible, off-shoot of Zeppelins design had a vast aluminum framework containing a series of gas bags for lift. These frameworks were strong enough to support aircraft and a hanger for the worlds first flying aircraft carrier. They were filled with non-flammable Helium from the USN gov't controlled plants. It was illegal for anyone else to extract helium in those days. I was stationed at the USCG Radsta Miami in 1961, right next door and you could still see the massive concrete hanger door holders. If the pix works you can see what one looked like. There is one intact in Akron, OH that is used for the Goodyear blimps ... the darn thing is so big that under the right conditions, it rains inside ... you could probably store 250 rail vehicles in one of these babies. Alas the base outside Miami was wiped out by a hurricane right after the dirigible program was abandoned.



lamontdc@adelphia.net

Speaking of FEC Pacifics 113 and 153, where are they now? When was the last time they operated, and how much work do they need to run again? They are pretty girls. Also what is the status of FEC 148 that used to be stored at the Valley RR in CT?

> Let's not forget FEC 153, recently
> beautifully cosmetially restored at Gold
> Coast Railroad Museum back at the old
> Richmond Blimp Base way down south of Miami.

> Dave

Both 153 and 113 are at Gold Coast RR. 153 is cosmetically restored, 113 is partially disassembled. Both need considerable work to run again. Sisters 750 and 107 are also not likely to run again, 750 is cosmetically restored in Duluth and 107 in process in Albany. Georgia, that is, in both cases.

Last I heard, 148 was somewhere way up north like Michigan and theoretically being restored to operating condition, but this information is several years old. I would have expected to see it under steam by now if the information was accurate. Perhaps somebody shivering in the cold up there can provide an update?

dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> Last I heard, 148 was somewhere way up north
> like Michigan and theoretically being
> restored to operating condition, but this
> information is several years old. I would
> have expected to see it under steam by now
> if the information was accurate. Perhaps
> somebody shivering in the cold up there can
> provide an update?

IIRC, there may have been some rumblings about 148 being for sale again. I do recall seeing some classified ads for a Pacific type in Michigan being available, but don't know if they were specifically for 148.

When 148 was on BR&W under Sam Freeman's ownership, it was reported (by long time BR&W folks) to be a shop queen. A beautiful engine, but one of those machines that always needed fixing...


Fiv4HghStk@aol.com

> Got the book as a birthday gift when I was > at the throttle. We became fast friends
> after that and ROn was a frequent guest in
> my parents home. I spent many weekends out
> at his home in the Hamptons, using his
> negatives and darkroom to make prints of
> locomotives I would never get to see. We
> took many steam safari's together, spent
> hours laughing, planning out a proposed
> tourist line that never got built, and
> generally living in steam locomotive heaven.
> I was too young to accompany him on his last
> few Mexico trips, but you should have seen
> the stockpile of locomotive parts this man
> had stacked in his backyard.
> Since those years, Ron has been a prolific
> author on topics closely related to Long
> Island's history, including the railroad,
> Theodore Roosevelt, and the Spanish American
> War. He was instrumental in restoring CPR
> #2839 and saving BEDT #12 from scrap, along
> with hundreds of priceless artifacts. Ron
> has his detractors, but his love of railroad
> history and steam locomotives in particular
> has opened the field of railroad
> preservation to thousands of others who
> might have otherwise missed the hobby.
> Incidently, he chronicled acres of steam
> locomotive at Northwestern Steel and Wire,
> in Sterling Illinois. Those photos include
> hundreds of GTW, CB&Q, and NKP, lined up
> coupler to coupler and being taken piecemeal
> to the furnaces. A Ziel book on lost
> American steam would be a journey that would
> reveal much about what might have been saved
> under different circumstances.
.
I, too, got "Twilight" as a gift when I was a teenager, and then went out and bought "Steam in the Sixties". I am wondering, is Ron still living? Happy New Year everybody!!!

They seem to have somewhat tender boilers from having seen many of them up close and firsthand.

First, consider the unlikelihood of a sugar mill purchasing fast light commuter engines to switch the mills. Accidentally the epotime of turn of the century varnish hauling steam got saved.

Looking at some old photos I got decades ago at a Florida train show, I am struck by the visible staybolt patterns on the side sheets. Different locomotives in the same class have all flexible stays, or just in the breaking zones where you would expect to see them. What's up with that? Attempt by FEC to solve some problems with floating fireboxes?

750 is down with some bad cracking around the rivets in the boiler. 107 has some very bad deterioration in the backhead and wrapper sheets, and the rear tube sheet looks like a relief map of Colorado. When I last saw 148 in Connecticut, she had some pretty substantial areas removed from her firebox.

Big Al can comment on 153 and 113 better than I can. 153 looks great now, and 113 is in fair mechanical condition but needs some boiler work as well, a lot of thin sections and eroded stays. maybe he will contribute from his firsthand experience on both of them.

dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

I
> am wondering, is Ron still living? Happy New
> Year everybody!!!

Very much so. By all reports he got out of the US steam scene for a good long time but has lately been joining some poto charters. Moreover, he published his first steam-related work in a while last year--article on China in R&R.

eledbetter@rypn.org

> What of the narrow gauge 0-4-0s in Augusta,
> GA?
> M&B 444 still exists in FL, but in a
> muti-colored scheme appartently.

I have always wanted to know the history of the 0-6-0 pictured below M&B 444. There also seems to be a small tank engine in the same photo.

Also on page 75 there are some Stationary boilers picture did any of these survive.

I remember original finding this book in the library in my teens(mid-70's) and racking up all kinds of fine's. I bought a copy about ten years ago. It has to be my favorite railroad book.

downdrikson@bright.net

Whatever became of Marianna & Blountstown No. 444? I understand that is does not have a tender.

> I have always wanted to know the history of
> the 0-6-0 pictured below M&B 444. There
> also seems to be a small tank engine in the
> same photo.

> Also on page 75 there are some Stationary
> boilers picture did any of these survive.

> I remember original finding this book in the
> library in my teens(mid-70's) and racking up
> all kinds of fine's. I bought a copy about
> ten years ago. It has to be my favorite
> railroad book.

The photo of the 0-6-0 was taken at the Rail City museum in Sandy Pond (or Sandy Creek), i've heard it called both. This engine as well as nearly all the tank engines were from the Solvay Process Co. near Syracuse, NY. In late 1992 the collection was sold off. The tank engines were all saved IIRC. The 0-6-0 #25 was sold to a local scrapper and was cut up in late '92 or early '93.

drotarinoh@webtv.net