From the Park Trains list, some news of some two-foot gauge "hobby" locomotives. The William Willock engines were part of his private backyard railroad, which (I think) was first on Long Island, then moved to Maryland. Since the 1950s, the 2-4-0 at least was at Frontier Town, a now-defunct tourist trap at N. Hudson, NY, and the 0-4-0T now in steam was there in recent years also. The Byron RR was another private hobby RR in Iowa, with two 2-6-2s built on the chassis' of WWI light military Davenport engines that were built for the light railways in France. The other 2-6-2 that is at the Erie Canal Village was built from one of these Davenports also. The Park Trains Yahoo list is quite active, with lots of interesting information unavailable elswehere.

-Ed Kelley



http://www.steamlocomotive.com/misc/images/iv16.jpg
ryarger@rypn.org

More from Ed Kelly's On Track online magazine, this time concerning Bill Norred's private collection of narrow gauge locomotives. Good stuff here:

http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/ontrack/Norred.htm
ryarger@rypn.org

To prevent confusion the message posted was not in my words and I don't know how my name ended up on this post as the signature. I did post something similar but not exact. Willocks' backyard RR was here on Long Island, in Syosset (Nassau County). I wouldn't call them hobby locomotives, they are authentic vintage 2' gauge industrial engines (an 0-4-0T Davenport and 2-4-0 Porter rebuilt from a hideous 0-4-0T). The 2-4-0 I believe was the only operational power at Frontier Town. The Byron RR, which I believe was public but run by a steamfitter named Byron Hiatt, was in Iowa and also owned some 15" gauge equipment. I am not sure if the Erie Canal 2-6-2 was built on a Davenport frame, I do not know. The two Byron engines were, and I believe only the #2968 is owned by Railstar at Erie Canal. To my knowledge none of the steamers operate at the village, just a Chance Rides diseasel fake steam train. Ron Trottier owns the company, Erie Canal Village, etc.

-Ed Kelley

As an update the lokies are now running on 2 miles of track with a future run of 7 planned. The 0-6-2 is still a 2-6-2.

JB

btflco@juno.com

While doing some genealogical research about my Hiatt relatives, I stumbled across this site (Railway Preservation News). Although I have little personal knowledge about engines, I was particularly interested in the posts related to Byron P. Hiatt of Creston, Iowa who operated a narrow gauge railway. He was a first cousin (once removed) of mine. The two engines he operated were named for himself Byron (#2967) and his brother Manford V. Hiatt (#2968). As has been mentioned in some of the other posts, Byron operated these as a recreational/tourist line. I thought perhaps the railway enthusiast who have posted comments about these engines might enjoy seeing the attached picture of Manford engine #2968 and Byron Hiatt, who is standing near the engine next to an unidentified woman. My father, Merle Jordan, also is in the picture at the far right. This photo was taken in the early 1950s.

If other RYPN members have information about Byron Hiatt or his trains that they can share, I'd be very happy to hear from them via this forum.

Oddly, this topic just came up in another necro'd thread a few days ago:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31929