In Part One of a two part series, Thomas Dyrek tells the story of Dick Jensen, whose passion for steam led to a collection of working locomotives that brought steam railroading to life for thousands of railfans.

http://thetracksidephotographer.com/202 ... for-steam/

Edd Fuller, Editor
The Trackside Photographer
http://thetracksidephotographer.com/

Very, very interesting article. Looking forward to part two!

Of all the people to ever put a wrench on a steam locomotive, there must be more rumors, stories, and different viewpoints on Dick Jensen than everybody else put together. Having never met the man, I have no idea what the truth (or truths) might be. One thing I do know, is that somebody took a cold chisel and tried to remove his name from the dedication plaque on T&P 610. VERY interesting....

This was definitely something great to read. the article greatly elaborated on Jensen's preservation efforts throughout the years and also stated new info I was unaware about or felt was way too vague too be true such as him being a bread delivery man. I would assume when most people think about private ownership of steam locomotives you think of some rich guy owning some big business or inheriting a lot of money but with Jensen it was a guy starting from the ground up working his way to the top.

Some things to note here are

- Jensen was 29 years old when he purchased his first steam locomotive (GTW 5629)

-the side rods of 5634 were saved (and possibly still exist today) 5634 was known as the "Voodoo Engine" on the GTW if you had an accident with a locomotive on a switch frog or a train was laying in a ditch it was more than likely the 5634. Who knows, maybe Jensen did put the side rods of of 5634 on 5629 and that's what caused it too meet its fate lol. I have heard stories of CB&Q 5632's side rods being salvaged and somewhat recently seen being transported by flatbed IIRC.

-The original tender was put on a spur and used as coal storage. Could the tender still possibly be around maybe as an aux tender of some sort? or was it cut up/possibly moved when Jensen was kicked out of the 47th street roundhouse which led to the eventual demise of CB&Q 5632?

I think the main thing to take away from this story is that Jensen despite his stubbornness was a go-getter in the preservation world. I think too many people in the railfan/preservation world are too cynical when someone says they have a dream to restore "so and so engine" to operational status and instead of encouraging it douse it with "well where's it gonna stay" "where are you gonna run it" and "where are you gonna get the funds from". While these are main important things to think about ahead of time really all you have to do is point to the story of Richard Jensen; a man who worked tirelessly with grit and a passion for the railroads and with the help of others pulled off what others would call a "pipe dream" for most had become a reality not once, but several times with different locomotives. (minus the fate of a portion of his privately owned steam fleet) the great thing about history like this Is we can learn from it and prevent the mistakes of the past from happening again. It's not very often you hear about a group of young guy/s anymore attempting a restoration of some sort on a steam locomotive and appreciating the hard work that comes with it. The small group of young guys working on Wabash 0-6-0 534 comes to mind when I think of a present day operation like that some in the earlier days I can think of are PM 1225 and NKP 765. Aside from that I think we should encourage more younger preservationists to step up to the bat and get their hands dirty. As much as big talk railroads may hate the whole preservation aspect of things and as hard as it may be able to trudge on I think there's an eventual light at the end of the tunnel for all preservation society's. Not just any other ordinary light but one with a headlight, Marker lights, smokebox door, boiler, and a smokestack getting brighter and brighter as the sound of gunshots of steam fill the tunnel. look at the amount of Steam Locomotive restorations happening In present day there's more than there have ever has in the history of preservation going on right now. But hey, I'm just a young guy from SE Michigan with another one of those "pipe dreams" who collects GTW memorabilia. Maybe a Pipe dream doesn't have to be a pipe dream as long as we work hard enough. That's at least what I have to take from the story of Richard Jensen.

A very great read for sure! Will be looking forward to reading part 2.

I am new to the forum and trying to reconstruct some history of my Grandfather who fired on the Virginian Line #457 (and others) in the 1915 till about 1930 best I can tell at the moment. He lived in Victoria, VA. He served in France in WW1 (1917-1919) and thankfully returned to us and the almighty Virginian 457.

I am anxious to learn more history behind him and these mighty steam locomotives. Railroad history in my family continued for many decades. I am including the link below as a tribute to my Grandfather and railroading back in that day. I do hope this is an appropriate place for this.

http://www.gmassie.net/heritage/hwmassie.html

Gerry Massie-
Suffolk, VA - USA

As you might guess from my name under that flyer for Dick's first trip, I was on the train as I grew up in Chicago. It was one of three that of his I rode, the others being on Oct 30, 1966 and Sept 17, 1967, both on the Grand Trunk Western to South Bend, IN. These suffered from what was called the "curse of Valpo hill," the upgrade part of the westbound trip into Valparaiso. We were delayed badly due to an overheated trailer truck bearing on one and something else on the other trip. Dick had leased some Rock Island commuter cars for one of the trips and they were the ones with two side doors part way along the body and had propane fueled engines under each one that provided the air conditioning. And on one of those trips we were hours late in what was becoming a death march. We got home in the wee hours of the morning and the Rock Island needed those cars for the morning commuter rush. But many of them had run out of fuel for their engines and would need work to become usable again. Needless to say the Rock didn't want to lease him any cars after that. I went into the Air Force in 1968 and in 1971 - 72 was stationed in Sacramento, CA, and ordered a ticket for another of his trips. A few day before I was going to leave for Chicago Dick called me on the phone to let me know it had been postponed. It was later cancelled, but I thought it was great of him to let me know so I didn't spend a lot of time and money on a wasted trip. That is just a bit of insight into how he was.

While I agree with a lot of what GTW Dude says, having a realistic, definitive plan in place before beginning any type of mechanical restoration is very important. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and we've all seen too many locomotives taken apart, with parts scattered to the wind, because of a lack of funding, or any number of reasons. While yes, it can be good to dream big, it's important to be realistic also.

John Rembis

Which ones?

The worst ones that I’m aware of are organizations and not individuals. (Southern 722 and K&T 10 come to mind....)

C & O 2700 was one. GTW 6325 was another. Lackawanna 565, during it's initial restoration attempt. There are many examples that can be found. Luckily 2700 has since been cosmetically restored and Jerry Jacobsen stepped in to save 6325.

John

So a large locomotive that is cosmetically restored. A locomotive that is part of the Age of Steam Roundhouse, and a locomotive that is part of the Steamtown collection. Umm... those aren’t good examples of tragic things that can happen if someone attempts a restoration.

My point with these examples is that the original attempts went awry because of lack of a cohesive plan. They all needed to be bailed out by someone else or could have ended in disaster. Are you at all familiar with the previous histories of these engines? The details are all on RYPN. I really don't see why anyone would argue against having funding in place, a place to run, and a solid restoration plan before beginning work. This is the point I'm trying to make. The original poster was making it seem like Jensen was someone to look to for inspiration. While he did accomplish a lot, how did things turn out? A lot was due to bad luck, and the railroads screwing him over, but it definitely can't hurt and is a good idea to have your ducks in a row before attempting to begin a restoration.

John

And again, I can point to several locomotives that were torn apart and are now just rusting away in disrepair by very qualified operations that “had a plan” and then something happened.

Be Safe. Move Forward. Do the best you can. Learn from mistakes.

Fair enough. Still, to me, having some of these things worked out beforehand can put you a step ahead of the game, rather than going into a project blindly.

John

Dick Jensen reached out to me when we were restoring the 759 in Ohio seeking my advice as to his plans for the Chicago area.

I listened carefully to his plans and shared with him what I saw as the fatal flaw in his thinking. He was basing his way forward on the fiscal foundation that the steam excursions would be solidly profitable and that those profits would fund his restorations.

I told him that he needed to find some well heeled steam lovers in the Chicago area that were willing to underwrite his ventures, making up the gap between excursion revenues and total costs.

I shared with him my experiences to that date with our sold out HICO excursions that were needing a subsidy of about 45% over and above ticket revenues.

He said that he didn't want to be beholden to any " fat cats" and would make it work based upon excursion revenues.

We all know how that turned out. Sad but true.

Ross Rowland

We all know how the Greenbrier Express turned out to. But I’m still glad you tried, would have been amazing if it had been successful.