Carl Jensen, manager of the Norfolk Southern Steam Program from 1986 to 1994, died on March 25, 2024, in Roanoke, Va. He was 87. His leadership was instrumental in guiding the program, and the travels of locomotives Nos. 611 and 1218, almost to its end. He also had a lengthy association with the National Railway […]
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — Anyone who doubts that aviation and railroading are often a shared affinity should consider the life of Mallory Hope Ferrell, a skilled photographer and writer, decorated military and commercial pilot, and the author of at least 21 railroad books, mostly concerned with narrow-gauge and shortline steam railroads. Lt. Colonel Mallory Hope […]
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Wendell J. Dillinger, 93, lifelong railroader and founder and CEO of the 7-mile-long Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad in Central Pennsylvania, died Dec. 10. During his 47 years of operating the line, he ran diesel freight and passenger trains, acquired and restored to service ex-Canadian National Railways 2-6-0 steam locomotive No. 91, and […]
Greg Scholl, who turned his lifelong interest in trains into a major video production business, died Dec. 9, 2023, after a long illness. He was 72. His company, Greg Scholl Video Productions, is one of the last independent video producers, having produced more than 250 titles as he traveled North America in search of steam […]
It is possible that no railroad author was as prolific, nor as wide-ranging in his interests, as H. Roger Grant. “If there is a chapter of railroad history that this scholar hasn’t researched, we don’t know what it is,” wrote Trains Editor Jim Wrinn in the magazine’s 75th anniversary issue in November 2015. “Grant makes […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Railroader, historian, and painter John E. Bromley, 81, died Oct. 7. Bromley is best remembered in railroad circles as Union Pacific’s director of public affairs, the railroad’s media spokesman for 25 years. Upon his retirement in 2005, the railroad appointed him as its director of historic projects, a position created specifically for […]
William E. (Bill) Greenwood, who led Burlington Northern’s intermodal operations through the discord of deregulation and later served as the railroad’s chief operating officer, died Sept. 22. He was 85. Greenwood became intrigued with railroading when he was in high school, and his love and fascination never ceased. “My interest began while working in a […]
DOVER, N.J. – Railroader, editor, and writer Michael Del Vecchio, 63, died Thursday, Aug. 31, after a lengthy battle with cancer. He is best known as an associate editor at Railfan Magazine, and later at the industry publication Railway Age. Prolific at any endeavor he set his mind to, his booming voice and New Jersey […]
CUMBERLAND, Md. — John Helmstetter, the third-generation owner of the farm from which Helmstetter’s Curve on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad takes its name, has died at age 81. Helmstetter died Aug. 15. His family’s farm at Corriganville, Md., about 5 miles west of Cumberland, was a popular photo site almost from the time the […]
LANCASTER, Pa. — Veteran preservationist, railroader, and journalist G. Wayne Laepple died of a heart attack on Monday July 10, 2023, two days short of his 76th birthday. Best known in recent times for his work in the restoration shops at the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum in Maine and the Railroad Museum of […]
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Donald G. Curry, who devoted 70 years of his life to Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, ultimately serving as its restoration manager, died June 9 at the age of 87. Curry was recognized as a leading authority on streetcar and interurban restoration. In 2014, he was honored with a lifetime achievement […]
MADISON, Wis. — Great artists often depend on advocates to protect their reputations, and that was never truer than in the relationship between noted American photographer O. Winston Link and his one-time assistant and longtime friend Thomas H. Garver. A significant art figure in his own right, Garver did as much as anyone to secure […]
