In Part Two of "A Passion for Steam," Thomas Dyrek continues the story of Dick Jensen, and the final days of the steam locomotives that he loved and worked so hard to preserve.

http://thetracksidephotographer.com/202 ... r-steam-2/

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

Very well written and informative, thanks for posting!

John

I echo John's statements. Thank you very much to you and author Thomas for presenting this intriguing article!

What's interesting here is the balancing of blame for the loss of the prime victims, CB&Q 5632 and GTW 5629. The big Burlington 4-8-4 still stands as an incalculable loss for steam advocates everywhere. The lack of cooperation from Luria seems unforgivable, at least at the distance of time. In the end, Jensen was no Jerry Joe Jacobsen, and it would seem his own worst enemy.

Edd -

Thanks for the continuation of the story of Dick Jensen and his locomotives. One of the things you mentioned was the bell from GTW #5629. I was extremely happy to hear that the bell had been saved and has "since wound up in a Chicago-area railfan's private collection." That bell is somewhat historic in its own right. Dick told me one time that the bell was off of Illinois Central 2-8-4 #8049. The 8049 was the original Super Power Berkshire #A-1 that Lima arranged to barnstorm a number of railroads introducing the Super Power concept. After her successful demonstration days, the engine was eventually sold to the IC where it became just one of the duplicate 2-8-4's in the IC's fleet. Unfortunately, the A-1/8049 was not preserved, but at least the bell is a remembrance of her and also of the 5629. Hopefully one day, the bell will find a museum location for permanent display where the story of the locomotives it once tolled for, can be told.

Les

It's certainly a tale with a sad ending. We steam lovers certainly owe his memory a big thank you for his love of steam and the lengths he went to in expressing it.

In my one relatively brief conversation with him in early 1969 I tried ( and failed) to convince him that mainline steam excursions could not be self supporting and that he needed to find some well heeled steam lovers to underwrite his ventures. I shared with him our real life experiences running the many HICO excursions to support my point.

He said " I don't want to be in business with some fat cats who will tell me what to do".

Sadly, we all know how it ended.

Truth is often stranger than fiction.

Ross Rowland

I agree with Richard's assessment above. Jensen got screwed by the railroad re: 5632, but it seems he was partly to blame in regards to 5629. It seems like he was almost hoping the engine would get scrapped so he could gain another settlement.

John

Thank you for posting this.
I knew a lot of the story as I knew people who worked directly with him, but there were a lot of gaps that you just filled for me. Much of what I heard in the past suddenly makes a lot more sense!
The sad thing is, he wouldn't let anyone tell him what to do (Ross, if he wouldn't listen to you, there was no reaching the man).
From this blog and what I've heard from those who knew him, Jensen was a man who loved steam but seems to view them as a self-perpetuating revenue stream.
The old adage of railroad preservation being an excellent way to turn a large fortune into a small one held true, much to his surprise. I think even at the end, he viewed his equipment as a way to make money.
I know most get infuriated at the way his 4-6-2 met it's end, but what irritates me most of all was if he'd only accepted Southern's offer to lease the engine and turn it into a PS-4 clone, in the long run he'd have gotten more money from that and I'd bet the engine would still exist somewhere (it's easy to imagine her at TVRM, maybe even running, today).

Greetings:

I read Thomas Dyrek's article "A Passion for Steam" with great interest as I was part of Dick Jensen's crew from 1966 until 1969 and was a "expert witness" in the Jensen vs. Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad lawsuit.

Prior to the trial I was interviewed by Paul O'Malley, one of Jensen's attorneys, however he didn't like the valuation method that I said that I would use, so I didn't hear any more about the matter until Bob McMillian tracked me down loading a locomotive in Maryland and asked me to testify for the C&WI as their "expert witness". I agreed to testify and they flew me back to Chicago that night and the next day I testified for several hours.

The case went to the jury the day before Christmas Eve and the jury quickly came back with a verdict in favor of Jensen which was immediately appealed. It is far too complicated to get into here, but Jensen never lived to see the settlement.

5632 derailed going into the Erman-Howell scrap yard trapping a Belt Railway of Chicago switcher for a couple for days until it (5632) could be re-railed and pushed into the yard. It blocked 4963 from being removed until it (5632) was scrapped along with virtually all of the new parts which the CB&Q had purchased for it's rebuilding. We worked for weeks getting everything out of the roundhouse, but ultimately it was for naught.

As a side note, I always scrawl "SAVE RJ" in soap stone on No.34 when I'm at Monticello (sorry Kent & Sy) and also on No.4963 (someone out at IRM continually wipes it off), (I'm easily amused...).

Once I'm finished with the second edition of "The Steam Locomotive Directory of North America", I'll hopefully still have enough time left to write "SAVE RJ" the Richard Jensen story.

Be well & stay safe,
J.David

J.David: Are there any photographs of 5632 being scrapped? Was the cause simply the business profit of the scrapper?

Richard:
I don't have any. The lack of photos was the basis for any number of theories as to where it was. There was a guy who worked at the big hobby shop in downtown Chicago who claimed he knew where it had gone, but of course he had been sworn to secrecy, so the rumor was passed along and embellished (not unlike the Erie pacific in Korea).

We'd stop by the scrap yard at 87th St. whenever we drove down the Dan Ryan to check up on the 5632 and 4963 and the parts cars. It was parked right next to the fence. One day it was gone. I climbed up a rusty fire escape on a nearby building to see if it was somewhere in the yard, unfortunately it wasn't.

It was blocking 4963 and perhaps some other equipment on that track. Also, if it was scrapped no one was going to try to get it out of there. It is doubtful that the Belt Railway of Chicago would be too interested given what a mess it was getting it in there.

Jensen's lawsuit wasn't aimed at getting the stuff back, just for the value of it...

Be well,
J.David

Thank you all for the positive feedback on my article. I'm glad it was able to clear some things up.

In regards to the 5632:

During my researching and interviewing process for the article, I was told several stories about what happened to it at the scrap yard. One person I talked to said it derailed when it was being delivered with 4963 and the other rolling stock, another said that it was just scrapped and there was never a derailment, and others told various other stories.

I was never able to confirm exactly what happened, but I decided to go with what I had seen and heard the most: sometime after Dick's equipment was delivered, the scrapyard needed to relocate the 5632 and tender to make room for something (not sure if it was other railroad equipment or what) and during the move it derailed on a switch and was subsequently scrapped as the yard was unable to easily re-rail it.

An interesting note: a couple days before my article was published, I received a message on Facebook from someone who seemed to recall reading in a local newspaper that during the moving process the 5632 derailed on some rotted ties and tipped over on its side. He also said that he remembers seeing a photo of this in whatever paper it was (he thinks it might have been the Tribune). I spent a couple hours looking through some Chicago newspaper archives but was unable to find anything. If this scenario is what actually happened, it would make even more sense as to why the scrap yard cut it up.

I have been unable to find anything about this other than the message I received on Facebook, and I doubt I will be able to find anything else. J. David's comment about the lack of photos at the trial makes me even more doubtful that this happened as I'm sure any newspaper photos would've been shown in court.

Unfortunately, I think this fuzzy part of the Jensen story will remain fuzzy and I highly doubt we will ever get a definitive answer on what exactly happened.

Thomas Dyrek

Wow... Oh wow. You know, it's really, Really, REALLY hard to tip a steam loco over. I would suspect this story is an outgrowth of someone saying a RAIL tipped over, as 'turning a rail' is what happens when you try to run a heavy load on track with poor ties, and that makes it really hard to re-rail if you don't have adequate lifting capacity on hand.

Another young Chicago guy who worked on Jensen's engines in those days, and later was in the shortline railroad business in New England, once put on a slide show for me one evening in 1975. It featured his shots of much of these events, including detailed color shots of the new CB&Q firebox already tack-welded into 5632, the crates of Flannery Staybolts stacked in the cab (supposedly Flannery's last order before going defunct), etc. etc. etc.

It was absolutely jaw-dropping to see all of that. I hope those images surface some day, perhaps in JDC's book on the subject.

Howard P.