Henry Rogers, 90, has always loved machine artifacts of any kind so he thought it would be good idea to take up an offer of a steam locomotive bell and whistle. The problem was the pair was in Yellow Springs, Ohio and Henry is in Newbury, Mass.
Here’s the back story. Roy Erskine, the father of Henry’s college roommate David, had them in his welding shop in Cleveland where Henry once worked and learned how to weld. Roy had fired steam locomotives at some point in his life and loved these living and breathing behemoths.
When Roy passed away, his son David emptied out the shop and had everything shipped to his garage in Yellow Springs (both Henry and David graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs). “The garage was chock-a-block full of stuff. You couldn’t move in that garage.”
Then David died a little more than five years ago.
Well, Henry expressed interest in the bell and whistle so David’s widow said come get them within a year or she’d dispose of them another way. “I figured I’d drive out there, throw them in the trunk and drive back.” At the time, he had no idea how big and heavy they were.
On to Plan B. After David’s widow died within that year, a neighbor of David’s arranged to store them in another garage until such time Henry could arrange to have them transported to his home in Newbury. He enlisted a furniture store to crate them up and a trucking company delivered them about two months ago.
Henry realizes the pair is too big and heavy for him to handle so I’ve suggested he donate a railroad historical society where artifacts like these are prized. Such whistles with their long lonesome gasps lulled many a young child to sleep in the middle of the night 75 or so years ago.
My best guess the whistle and bell came off locomotives belonging to the former New York Central RR or the Nickelplate (now CSX and Norfolk Southern) which had heavy presences in Cleveland decades ago. Or they could have been on any railroad’s locomotives. Once uncrated, clues to where the bell and whistle came from or who made them might surface.
So Henry’s plan to put at least the outsized iron bell in his front yard won’t be happening.
