Living with Steam

In this episode of Living with Steam EXTRA, we continue the story of William A. Steventon and how he took the practice of sharing railroad sound recordings with like-minded railfans to a whole new level. As strange as it may sound to us now, back when the railroad industry dominated the American landscape, railfans were sharing photographs, movies, and eventually, sound recordings of trains with each other. A simple “letter” or advertisement placed in a newspaper or trade magazine would serve to  present a person’s offerings to the reader. “I have an incredible collection of New York Central” steam recordings in the Buffalo, NY area,” a typical ad may have read. “Am interested in trading sounds of steam of the Sante Fe in Los Angeles.” As simple as this may sound, trading archival material was carried out with railfans from all over the world.  Steventon wanted  to take this practice one step further by  introducing a “catalog” of his recordings (and others in the future) which he would eventually call “The Railroad Record Club.” And this all began when he received a Christmas gift from his wife in 1952.

In this episode of LwS EXTRA, we begin our look at the life and legacy of William A. Steventon and the Railroad Record Club.  The RRC was a brilliant and very innovative way for Steventon to share the many sound recordings he made in addition to those from other railfans who also started making recordings of trains from the mid 1950s onward. The introduction of the “consumer model” portable tape recorder made it possible for dozens of “Railroad Sounds Audio Recording Engineers” to hit the road and set up their gear near railroad tracks all over the country. Compared to many of his contemporaries (like O. Winston Link, Brad Miller, or even John Prophet), Steventon may have been more prolific in his recorded output. However, he is not as widely known as others who were also out in the field making authentic recordings of trains.

On Memorial Day weekend in 1973, Ross Rowland Jr.'s High Iron Company organized an excursion train to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. The train would be pulled by ex-Reading #2102 dressed up to look like D&H #302. Jim Van Brocklin, who along with John Prophet was a prominent member of the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the NRHS, packed his family into the car and chased the train from just outside Hoboken, NJ to Binghamton, NY. Prior to this event, however, Jim did a "trial run" of sorts by recording a similar excursion that ran on the D&H tracks from Colonie, NY to Montreal, Canada in late April of 1973; likewise pulled by "D&H #302." Jim caught this train just outside of Mechanicville, NY using a portable stereo reel-to-reel tape recorder and two microphones. The results are spectacular.

This is the first episode of Living with Steam EXTRA, where between episodes of the main podcast, I'll share railroad recordings made by folks other than John Prophet. On a cold, early evening in February 1993, I was inside Central Terminal in Buffalo, NY having a "look-around" with several friends. While everyone was off exploring the tower section, I wandered up to the 10th floor because I wanted to attempt to make a recording of what the outside of the facility sounded like. The mainline of the NYC (then Conrail) was obviously several hundred feet in front, and the tracks coming off the Belt Line (heading east) were right below the window I was looking out from. I lowered microphones out from two windows facing the tracks and connected them to a portable cassette deck I had brought with me. For 16 minutes, I sat in the window watching everything unfold outside the Terminal while the tape recorder captured it all... including some of my friends walking around the floor. Quiet, please! This may not be a recording of steam engines, but the recording might give you a good representation of what it may have sounded like to work at Central Terminal with the continuous and often very busy rail activity going on outside.

After spending Christmas of 1948 with his family, John M. Prophet III drove to Westfield, NY to visit some friends on the 26th. While there, he stopped at the Westfield passenger station in order to set up the wire recorder and capture whatever train happened by. If the town name "Westfield, NY" sounds familiar to you American History aficionados, then you'd be correct in saying that Westfield has a definite page in the book of American History.

In June of 1953, John Prophet packed up his car and drove out of Buffalo to begin an excursion by heading east/south-east. He visited Altoona, Tyrone, and Cresson, PA, and he also went as far as Cumberland, MD... always trying to stay within sight of railroad tracks... always on the lookout for active steam engines on ANY railroad.  On June 28, John found himself in Shawsville, VA. His intentions may have been to photograph and record trains of the Norfolk & Western in Roanoke, but instead, he visited several smaller towns outside of Roanoke and was able to make some incredible recordings of very active N&W Y6 engines, J-Class engines, and more. It was 1953, and the N&W was still holding on to their steam engine fleet to haul coal and passengers. They wouldn't announce their intentions to eliminate steam for two more years. John was very fortunate, and we'll listen to his N&W recordings and much more in this season finale of Living With Steam.

By the early 1950s, John Prophet was discovering all too well that steam engines were being dropped from mainline railroads all over the country. Even at Buffalo in 1951, John was seeing more diesel engines on the tracks of the New York Central than he had noticed only a year earlier. In order to try and capture steam engines still in use, John began to venture out of the Western New York area and into localities where railroads like the Erie and Delaware & Hudson were still running steam. This episode features the only recording John made of an Erie steam engine; in Port Jervis, NY. After that, he went to Saratoga Springs, NY to catch several freight and passenger trains still being pulled by steam on the D&H.

Interlocking Tower 49-A was a New York Central signal/switching tower located a mile west of Buffalo Central Terminal. John Prophet made some of his best recordings of New York Central, Pennsylvania, and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo trains from here. John's best friend, Sam Herrington, was an operator in the tower and he was able to get John inside to make recordings dozens of times when working the evening shift. It was a very warm evening this Sunday, October 24 in 1951, and the neighborhood surrounding Tower 49-A was alive with activity. John captured every bit of it.