Famous Railfans

rem1028 · **Joined:** Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:32 am **Posts:** 292

Rob,

Again, see Leonard F. Shaner, Jr.

John

LVRR2095 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:38 pm

rem1028 wrote:

Thirty years ago when I was about 10, I came across many old back issues of Railroad at a local used book store in Passaic, NJ. I was especially interested to find the issue profiling Earle Gil as an interesting Railfan, and another featuring Kristoffer Miller of the Pine Creek Railroad. I know of course what happened to Mr. Gil, but whatever happened to Mr. Miller? He seemed to be heavily involved in the early operations of the Pine Creek.

Kris Miller passed away at a young age, many years ago. He was a very knowledgeable person and he had am amazing memory. A talented steam engineer he taught many of us towards getting our New Jersey Blue Seal Engineer’s Licenses.

Keith

rem1028 · **Joined:** Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:32 am **Posts:** 292

Very sorry to hear about Mr. Miller. Thank you Keith for letting me know what happened to him.

John

p51 · **Posted:** Fri Apr 12, 2019 6:13 pm

rem1028 wrote:

Again, see Leonard F. Shaner, Jr.

I had never heard the name until recently and Googled him.
The results that came up were very disturbing. And I don't mean disturbing about him, I mean from the people posting the stuff. There's what I can only describe as an insane level of hate going into a lot of bandwidth on the guy.
Frankly, I'd be far more concerned about the mental well being of the person/people who posted all that stuff than I would about any one railfan with issues (as there are a lot of those in the hobby). For crying out loud, some of them post the guy's home address! I've never met anyone in the hobby I'd go to that level of hate/trolling online for...

Tom F · **Joined:** Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:04 pm **Posts:** 314

Charlie wrote:

Railroad Magazine had an "Interesting Railfan" section that would profile someone who was usually well known in a local area but unheard of nationally. It would be nice to resurrect that in some form or another. It's sad to read about the passing of various railfans on this forum and know nothing about them other than a brief description of who they were and what they did. Reading about their exploits in a bygone era is quite fascinating in these modern times, at least for me. In another 50 years, I doubt if anyone from this era will be worth mentioning as a famous or interesting railfan. Not that there is a lack of passion, but modern day railroading just doesn't present the opportunities to create exploits that compare to documenting the last of steam or chasing a Mohawk that refused to abdicate.

In another 50 years nobody will have remembered our movie stars either. You brought up a good point about never knowing these rail fans or their work for that matter. I know many of us have spent a large portion of our lives waiting for trains, climbing mountains in all sorts of bad weather, and spending large sums of money chasing trains. Yet how many people have even seen a fraction of our photographs? I recently came across a estate sale of a rail fan who had a massive collection of tapes and slides from his travels all over the World. I doubt anyone ever saw them. I thought what a waste. I bought lots of his stuff and hopefully I can get it out there one day.

I never considered myself a railfan. Even at a young age I always considered myself a historian. Our work is important. I am fairly certain down the road all the trains will be the maglev type with no steel wheels or rails. Just ugly concrete and silent running. Our photographs and video will be a real treat to watch. Will they care about the photographer? I am sure they will be thankful. I know I have had quite a bit of my stuff out there and I get compliments everyday. Some people are eternally grateful that I filmed their father or grand father running a train. Sometimes the only video of that subject.

Is Ron Zeil still alive? He had one of the best collections photographing the end of steam. He had some of the only photographs of the Big Boys getting scrapped.

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Sat Apr 13, 2019 9:27 pm

Ron Ziel passed away about two years ago. He was the most traveled and experience rail photographer I ever knew. He rarely "wasted film" on Diesels, devoting his talents to recording steam -live, dead, stuffed and mounted, restored, and dying.

RCD · **Posted:** Mon Apr 15, 2019 3:14 pm

p51 wrote:

rem1028 wrote:

Again, see Leonard F. Shaner, Jr.

I had never heard the name until recently and Googled him.
The results that came up were very disturbing. And I don't mean disturbing about him, I mean from the people posting the stuff. There's what I can only describe as an insane level of hate going into a lot of bandwidth on the guy.
Frankly, I'd be far more concerned about the mental well being of the person/people who posted all that stuff than I would about any one railfan with issues (as there are a lot of those in the hobby). For crying out loud, some of them post the guy's home address! I've never met anyone in the hobby I'd go to that level of hate/trolling online for...

Just ask anybody in the railroad preservation community in Pennsylvania about him. Also Millenniumforce (look him up on youtube) is another well knowen railfan.