After reading the string on locos lost or saved in the nick of time and the Twilight book, I recall the saga of Paulson Spence. Does anyone out there have a complete roster of all that he had prior to his death? I recall the text of the book noted some significant units.

bigboy4884@charter.net

Can someone give us the details as to what he had and what transpired here. I recall reading about all this in a magazine sometime back, which included photos of all his engines...Do those images still exist, and can anyone fill me in on when this all took place.
Greg Scholl


Videos and such
sales@gregschollvideo.com

Someone sent me the complete roster at one time; unfortunately, I believe it was in my mail archives at work, which I did not get to copy before I was laid off.

Way before Interstates 10 and 20 were built, Paulson Spence had a dream of building a railroad bypass around New Orleans. He collected over 30 steam locomotives for his dream railroad.

When he died, his family scrapped all but four of the engines in his collection.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

> Can someone give us the details as to what
> he had and what transpired here. I recall
> reading about all this in a magazine
> sometime back, which included photos of all
> his engines...Do those images still exist,
> and can anyone fill me in on when this all
> took place.
> Greg Scholl


Surviving World Steam Locomotives
james1@pernet.net

I know that Nickel Plate 4-6-4 #173 was among them. Its an engine fairly dear to my heart, as I have a great shot of my grandfather and a friend on her running board taken in Cleveland sometime in the 1920's. Later in life, she had a set of elephant ears that made her look particularly nice. Not many engines could pull that off; those NKP hudson's could. I believe there were a couple other NKP engines that went up as well. I believe #170 is preserved in St. louis though, so I would put that somewhat on par with 5629; should have been saved, but not as damning as not having a single NYC Dreyfus Hudson or Pennsy T1.

TJG

TJG

Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

You may call a di-sease-l a "unit," but not a steam locomotive, puleeze!

Got to maintain that high level of respect for God's gift to locomotion. Jim

Wrinnbo@aol.com

TRAINS (or RAILROAD, I forget which) magazine had a photo article on the Spence collection with a roster back in the late 1950's. Anyone know the issue?

On Mike Palmieri's Louisiana Rail Site there are a handful of (J. Parker Lamb) photos of Spence's Louisiana Eastern steam locomotives taken in July 1957. Follow the below link and scroll down the page to "Louisiana Eastern". Click on the various "buttons" to view the different photographes.

Regards,
Jim Robinson


Spence collection photos

> Way before Interstates 10 and 20 were built,
> Paulson Spence had a dream of building a
> railroad bypass around New Orleans. He
> collected over 30 steam locomotives for his
> dream railroad.

I also remember the photos in "The Twilight of Steam" that showed piles of spare parts he had acquired- tires, air pumps, etc. which would have been used to keep this fleet running for years. All of this was also scrapped.

The Ultimate Steam Page
whodom@awod.com

> TRAINS (or RAILROAD, I forget which)
> magazine had a photo article on the Spence
> collection with a roster back in the late
> 1950's. Anyone know the issue?

This may be the reference that you're referring to:
Witbeck, C.W. March 1963. "The strange story of Mr. Spence and his steam engines". Trains, p. 45.

Cheers,
Keith Albrandt

kalbran1@NOSPAMsan.rr.com

Thanks for posting the link to the photos...I think thats the first time I ever laid eyes on a TP&W 2-8-2....odd looking front on them.
Any other images out there of the Spence collection? How about a roster!
Greg Scholl

Videos and such
sales@gregschollvideo.com

Greg,
That is a T&P 2-8-2, not a TP&W 2-8-2. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Mr. Spence believed that locomotives should carry their headlights high on the smokebox. I suspect that when the locomotive was renumbered, the position of the headlight was changed from the center of the smokebox. Are there any photos of T&P Mikes on the web that would confirm this? Is my memory of Mr. Spence's locomotive "face" philosophy correct, or have I inhaled too much coal smoke and dust over the years?
Don C.

old_fxrs@msn.com

> Greg,
> That is a T&P 2-8-2, not a TP&W
> 2-8-2. I seem to remember reading somewhere
> that Mr. Spence believed that locomotives
> should carry their headlights high on the
> smokebox. I suspect that when the locomotive

Don't know why I typed TP&W, was thinking T&P the whole time, especially thinking of T&P 610 which we saw on the Southern. Yes the headlight of the 2-8-2 would look better centered on the smokebox.
Greg Scholl

Videos and such
sales@gregschollvideo.com

Check to photos on the following site:
www.texaspacificrailway.org/
The T&P 2-8-2s were in the 800 series, so they are towards the bottom of the "Photo" section under "Steam Era". To make a long story short, the headlights were centered while the locos were on the T&P. Very handsome engines to say the least!
Don C.

old_fxrs@msn.com

It's interesting to note that the company that Paulsen Spence created is still maufacturing regulators and other steam-related items


Spence Engineering homepage
johni@warwick.net

> the saga of Paulson Spence.
> Does anyone out there have a complete roster
> of all that he had prior to his death?

This question was asked either on this board or on another about a year ago. It prompted me to go digging through my archives and find the answer.

Yes, a "complete" roster was published. In two different magazines, no less. The March issue of TRAINS magazine contains an article written by C.W. Witbeck. It has LOTS of photos of the different engines, though it is not an entire roster compilation. The photo that is of most interest, at least to Northeast railfans, is the shot at the bottom of page 45. It shows a line up four different locomotives, the lead engine being LE #2. That is actually ex GM&N, ex GM&O, now Andy Muller's #425, complete with centered headlight and coal pusher still intact. And the pony truck had the spoked wheel along with the solid wheel. Another shot of her appears on the next page, this time numbered LE #4. The headlight has been raised and the coal pusher is gone. The Stone Mountain engine, LE #1, is pictured as is Wilmington's #98. The real gems are the THREE ex Nickel Plate 4-6-4's that he owned but never used, at least the #174.

The second article, this time with roster, was published in the April, 1963 issue of RAILROAD magazine. The article, written by Wilbur T. Golson, was part of a "Interesting Railfans" series that Railroad used to publish. The roster seems complete, though as Spence used to re-number locomotives on a whim, it may not be 100% accurate. The roster contains one 4-4-0, six 4-6-2's, three 4-6-4's, eleven 2-8-2's, seven 0-6-0's, and three 0-8-0's. It also lists the three engines scrapped by the LE, and the three engines sold by the LE at the time the article was written. The article also mentions a Louisiana Eastern photo article in the June, 1962 issue of Railroad, but I can't lay my hands on that issue in my collection.

Good luck finding copies of those issues!

rpsurv@nni.com

> Good luck finding copies of those issues!

Paul Gibson at Railpub.com lists all three of those magazines in stock.
Trains 3/63
Railroad 4/63
Railroad 6/62
The link is below. Courtesy post only. I have no affiliation with Railpub.com

Cheers,
Keith Albrandt


RailPub.com
kalbran1@NOSPAMsan.rr.com