From what I understand he had been battling cancer privately for some time. Wrinn was probably one of the most influential personalities in the industry so far this century. Condolences to his family.

Photo of Jim and his wife Cate in Clewiston, FL, two months ago for the TRAINS Magazine photo charter with US Sugar no. 148.

Jim not only supported a number of preservation projects through TRAINS, most notably Western Maryland Scenic no 1309, but he skillfully navigated a changing media world, knowing that as print declined new revenue streams would have to be developed. He pushed digital products and captured video wherever he went. The photo charters not only capitalized on the magazine's brand but were quintessential Jim Wrinn - a chance to bring people together to socialize, celebrate and enjoy our common interests in steam and railway history.

With Jim's passing, many of us have lost a personal friend and all of us have lost a passionate voice for our industry and our avocation.

Alan Maples

He had posted about it often and in detail on Facebook. It was truly amazing to see how he dealt with the awfulness of chemo with humor and optimism. His last illness-related post was March 13; he was too fatigued to take chemo again so they were giving him fluids via IV. Of course, there’s a photo of him smiling ear-to-ear while he’s working on his laptop. On the 19th, he posted a memory of running the No. 1925 at Spencer. On the 21st, his page is filled with well-wishes for his birthday.

RIP Jim.

Specifically, pancreatic "the c-word."
One RR history acquaintance, one fellow railfan, and one other historian/re-enactor friend all were hit with pancreatic c*****; all were dead within two weeks of diagnosis. One died an hour before I showed up at the hospital to see him, when I thought I had at least some weeks to see him. He had only entered days earlier, and I was told the previous night.

In that measure, "Wrinnbo" put up a helluva fight and beat the odds, staying around just long enough for the rebirth of C&O 1309 and RGS 20.

In the ever-expanding debate over social media's worth, I've quickly learned how to tell who has Facebook and who doesn't. The ones who don't are shocked at the news; the one who properly use Facebook knew this had to be coming. He was hardly private about it at all, openly updating his "FB friends" (and Jim would "friend" just about anyone that ever contacted him except MAYBE exceeding polite Nigerian financing proposers and people hawking pills to do things to certain naughty bits--because that was Jim, where every stranger was "a friend you haven't met yet".....) on his "rat poison" infusions while using even the term "the c-word" as seldom as possible. Jim was private in some ways, but to be honest, it almost seems "not Jim" that the services will be private. It seems we all have to go get a sixpack of Cheerwine and Ale-8 and drink up over slide shows of the North Carolina Transportation Museum and SR and NS steam...........

One thing I start to fret about, however:
For years Kalmbach Publishing/Media has been trying to lurch Trains Magazine further towards more industry news and coverage, at times to the expense of more typical "railfan" and history coverage. In addition, now every issue is an annual themed issue, overtly or more subtly. This is driven by advertising, plain and simple. Advertising pays for the paper of a magazine or newspaper; your payment or subscription pays (they hope) for the content. As a newspaper guy, Jim knew this intimately, but he still privately chafed at the trend. Note that what had been the annual Christmas-themed issue in December is gone. Jim was one of the loudest advocates at Kalmbach for coverage of rail preservation and history. Now he and his two fellow advocates, Kevin Keefe and Rob McGonigal, are retired, and Carl Swanson is over at Model Railroader.

But it IS 2022. What (kinda) worked in the days of Morgan and Ingles probably wouldn't work today, even if tried. And there's no cosmetics, tobacco, diet-pill, or wedding industry desperate to buy advertising in the pages of Trains............

I was just thinking that would be an appropriate tribute. And as luck would have it I will be in Spencer tomorrow.

A post by Union Pacific's Twitter Account:

And a post from Union Pacific Steam's Twitter Account:



[Note: I had to shrink UP's photographs down to 800x600 for RYPN - the twitter posts that I've linked to have 4032x3024 versions of the photographs.]

Here is a good obit on Jim written by George Hamlin.
https://cs.trains.com/trn/b/observation ... acter.aspx

A fresh pic of 1925, taken in Jim's memory

Graham County Shay No. 1925 by Mark Hedges, on Flickr

Another tribute this weekend:



https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=990420454944058

I also saw that they are planning a tribute to him at the Trains photoshoot at AOS next month (which I will be attending).

I just wanted to mention that it has been a full year since we lost Jim.

Initial stages of the restoration of 1925 are under way. The cylinders have been removed and the boiler stripped down to take thickness measurements. Here are some pics from when we were in Spencer for the St. Patricks Day dinner train ("writing" in the dust by the loco number not done by me)

Shay 1925 by Mark Hedges, on Flickr

Untitled by Mark Hedges, on Flickr

FYI all I got an email from the NC Transportation museum yesterday stating that while no major issues were raised during the assessment of the locomotive they are deferring any restoration effort on 1925 for now due to the amount of funding needed and limited resources for running rail operations etc. The locomotive will be reassembled for display.

Nothing like a slap in the face to the memory of one of your biggest supporters.

TVRM did the same thing - donate to #5288 restoration in honor of Robert Soule.