Category: Visitors

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July, 2021 Visitors

The Summer is still moving way too fast. Bill Simonton continues working on the frame drawings.

In the past month we have had several more visitors. On July 10th Robert and Carol Murdock stopped by. They were up in Corry from down in Virginia. Carol is a GGGranddaughter of Charles Darwin Scott and they were in town to see our Climax A-313 project as well as to check out the Class B, Sn. 1681 at the local Museum and paying respects at Scott’s gravesite at the cemetery in Spartansburg. It was good meeting them and they left us with a very nice donation.

On the 15th Bob Casler, the son of Walt Casler, the premier authority on the Climax Locomotive (1905-1997), paid us a visit for a couple of hours to take a look at Project A-313. Bob and Elaine are in the process of moving west and out of the ice-belt and brought by a few items to donate to Corry RAILS. It was good seeing Bob again and a big thank you for the nice donations.

Yesterday, on the 20th, we had a surprise guest Elaine Bens came by for a couple of hours. Elaine’s family is originally from the Western New York area and she was here visiting her Brother Phil from up in Gerry, NY. Currently, Elaine is on vacation from Roaring Camp in Felton, California… near Santa Cruz…. where she is Director of Operations for the railroad based theme park located in the coastal redwoods. Check them out at www.roaringcamp.com . Roaring Camp is back open and operating following the Covid shut downs and feature their Heisler “Sonora” and their Shay “Dixiana”, along with some other locomotives. They also have a Climax B which was purchased back in 1972 from Carroll Park & Western Railway in Bloomsburg, PA where it ran in the Carroll Park theme park. originally Sn. 1692 ran in West Virginia at the Elk River Coal & Lumber Co… then the Clinchfield Coal Co. until 1958. The engine was partially disassembled to convert it to 36″ gauge back in the ’70s and is still apart… although a new non-profit has recently been formed to resurrect the restoration efforts. Arrangements were made for her to be able to visit the Corry Historical Society and view Climax 1681 also a Class B engine. It was nice meeting Elaine.

Things are getting finalized for a return trip to Alaska to do some more research on A-313… search for some more parts and to work on our interviews and “B” roll for our future documentary. More on that later.

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June 2021 Work and Visitors

This Summer is moving along way too fast for me. Everyone is busy with postponed activities from the “2020 Covid Year”, so it is difficult scheduling some of our initial baby-steps in moving the A-313 Project forward… but, yet, some of those steps are beginning to take place.

Over this last month, following our successful Open-House “MAY’n” Event, a couple of key steps have taken place. First and foremost, after moving all of the equipment and parts away from one of the walls in our building, the folks from RIDG-U-RAK in North East, PA showed up with a wonderful donation of new racking for our Climax A-313 Project and future endeavors…. a HUGE THANKYOU to “Mr. P” and the RIDG-U-RAK family for their contribution to our project, and their belief in our mission…Thank You!!!.

Another local business has donated a triple-mast Forklift which is now in the mechanic’s shop having some rebuild work and repairs done to it before it moves to its new home at the Corry RAILS Restoration Shop.

Yet another local family has donated a trailer to us which is now getting new decking installed on it. The trailer will come in handy for moving some of the parts around, especially the Boiler, when the time comes.

Last week, one of our Team members, Bill Simonton, made the trek to Corry from his home in Virginia to begin working on CAD drawings of the Main Frame components and to help research and reverse engineer the “How’s and Why’s” of the original build of Climax A-313 back in 1902. Very little exists today as to original engineering for these little engines, so it is important and up to us to figure it out… What was the thought process? What steps were Standard… and which were Optional, or Modifications to Standard? Why did they do it this way and not that way? Things that are pretty rudimentary and look so simple, often times are not. It is yet another learning process.

Once the Frame drawings are done we will have the foundation to build on… and, over time everything else will then begin to fall into place. I met Bill several years ago when we were both members of and volunteering with the Mountain State Railroad and Logging Historical Association (MSR&LHA) on their 14 year rebuild project of the Climax No.9 (Shop Number 1551), a 70ton Class C locomotive, at Cass Scenic Railroad in Cass, West “By God” Virginia. Not only did Bill assist with all of the manual labor going into the project, but he took it upon himself to work on, create and produce, a beautiful set of Plan, Elevation and 3-D CAD drawings of the C-1551. We are happy to have Bill on the Team. In the near future we will have Prints of those drawings of the Climax C-1551 for sale, and at some point we will also have similar Prints of our A-313 to sell as well.

This week we had a visitor from Alaska join us for a day or two… Gene Augustine was in town… one of our Alaska Rescue Team members, and long-time volunteer at our Sister Restoration Group, the “557 Restoration Company” in Wasilla, AK. Gene helped us for several days when we were in Alaska last Fall with the repacking of the A-313. A native of Pennsylvania, Gene is originally from Natrona Heights, PA, just north of Pittsburgh. A Biologist by trade, he ended up in Alaska. Gene was back in the area for a surprise 50th Anniversary party for his sister and took the opportunity to come to Corry for a couple of days to catch up on RR stuff with Tom V. and myself, checking out the progress on A-313 and our Shop and visiting the Climax B-1681 in the Corry Museum, as well as visiting with a local college classmate of his, Dr. Karl Streilein. That’s it for right now…. toot-toot… backing out of the station. Carl W.