Friends,

Slowly, I am actually adding CONTENT to the ghost of Ahead of the Torch. Today, I reposted the 1997 article and photos of the Lombard steam tractor in operation at Lincoln, NH.

Click the link and choose the article from the menu.

Enjoy!

Rob



Ahead of the Torch
trains@robertjohndavis.com

Rob,
excellent site, and great story about the Lombard.
I'd seen that beauty at Clark's and wondered if it was operable. It is kept under a pole shed at Clark's, correct?
Also, any idea if the Lombards used up at Eagle Lake in Maine were built in Waterville also?
I've read that they were used to pull those 2 stranded NYC locos to Eagle Lake across the ice in the dead of winter.

Steve



SJHussar@aol.com

I know the Clark's personally and the undertaking they set out on to bring a Lombard back to life is truly a story that would be worth of a monthly article here on RYPN. While it isn't "railway preservation", it would serve to show that it was a job rivaling a major locomotive restoration. Basically it was roughly 15 years of off and on physical work..... after they got all the parts from North Western woods of Maine collected back in Linclon,NH. It took parts form 3 machines to put one functioing one together.

Today, such a thing would be impossible, in that the "woods were closed" to such retrivals of antiquity some years ago. ANYTHING there now, will stay there forever.

Many parts were rebuilt or re-made. They were fortunate enought to find a drive chain for it with the same 4-1/8" pitch at a constuction equipment bone yard that likely came off a crane, with an adjustment in the lenght, they now a had the required pair.

There are many more stories, but the end result is stunning. The first time I saw it sitting in the engine house all ready to be pulled out and steamed up that day was a sight to behold. That day they put me in charge of it's operation and showing their friends how to run it because they wanted to talk with all the oldtimers that come out that have stories and information to share.

I believe it was the same Lombard weekend that is pictured on the website there was a warm front that came through and the temperture instantly shot up 30 or 40 degrees then returned to normal. But with that front here was a thunderstorm - in February which kinda catches one off gaurd. I was steering it and came around the corner on what is normally the overflow parking and as we passed under the power lines the skies opened and the thunder and lightning made holding onto a cast iron steering wheel quite interesting. I yelled to my friend from back home who was on the throttle to step on it and get us "home". That night the shop turned into a laundry due to all the wet winter clothes hanging over the wood stove.