Living with Steam Aaron Heverin

This episode of Living with Steam features recordings John Prophet made at the Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger station in Trenton, NJ on July 27, 1951. As a bonus, the episode also features recordings John made during the last week Pennsylvania Railroad steam engines were used to pull passenger trains in and out of Buffalo, NY.

In this episode of LwS EXTRA, you'll be introduced to the railroad sound recordings John M. Prophet made after 1955, when he put away his Webster-Chicago wire recorder in favor of a new magnetic tape recorder. The tape featured in this episode is one John labeled as being "#1" in a set of five tapes he had grouped together. As you'll hear, the fourth tape has gone missing. John made these recordings shortly after the Penn Central declared bankruptcy and thus plunged the railroad industry into unprecedented chaos. Although John labeled each recording as being that of a Pennsylvania Railroad diesel locomotive, the timeline is such that what John actually recorded were PRR diesels that had been stripped of their original identify and painted over in Penn Central colors and road numbers.

Welcome to the first episode in season 3 of Living with Steam.
In July of 1949, John Prophet paid another visit to New York Central’s Bay View (BV) interlocking tower, which was located in Blasdell, NY. In reality, John stopped by BV tower accompanied by his sister Annette and a few of his close friends six out of the seven days during the week of July 24; recording a few trains every evening. During these visits, John concentrated almost entirely on getting recordings of Pennsylvania and Nickel Plate Road trains. Also featured in this episode is a story about the unbelievable boldness of DL&W Railroad in 1880s Buffalo, and how railroad matters were constantly being reported in the many newspapers published in Buffalo at the time.

“About half-past three o’clock yesterday afternoon, the telegraph flashed the news to this city that an accident had occurred near the Village of Angola, to the New York Express train, on the Lake Shore Road, due at Buffalo at 1:30 pm, and that there was a fearful loss of life.” 84 years later, on Sunday, July 22, 1951, John got in his car and drove down to the Village of Angola, NY to make some recordings of NKP and PRR trains. The NKP Angola station wasn't being used at that point, but freight and passenger trains of both railroads raced by the station on a continuous basis and John captured roughly 10 minutes of great material. When we listened to his Angola recordings in 1993, he made sure I was well aware of the events that made "Angola" a household name in the late 19th century. Angola wasn't just a great place to watch and record trains. It was also the location of one of the worst railroad disasters that had occurred up to that time. In many ways, "The Angola Horror" remains one of the worst railroad disasters EVER.

PLEASE NOTE that listener discretion is advised for this episode. What happened at Angola isn't pretty and there's no way to sugarcoat it in the story. This episode may be a little rough on the ears of younger listeners.

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.

On September 22, 1949, John M. Prophet III brought his Webster-Chicago wire recorder to New York Central's Tower 50; a very busy interlocking tower located right in the heart of Downtown Buffalo, and perhaps one of the best locations for capturing non-stop train activity. Unfortunately for John, he arrived at the tower just as Buffalo was about to experience one of the worst weather events of 1949. It was unseasonably cold, with heavy thunderstorms, wind, and hail all occurring throughout the time he was there. John recorded from Tower 50 a total of four times. However, he had told me that, in his opinion, the recordings he made there were "boring." Well, you be the judge as you listen to perhaps two of the greatest sounds combined into one incredible soundscape; thunderstorms and trains in the heart of one of the most cluttered and busiest railroad areas of Buffalo.