Our History: 1980-2007 (new photo added January, 2009)
This is Bob Hornsby, former East Coast Secretary for the Brotherhood of Live Steamers, running Charlie Purinton's 3/4" scale 4-4-2 at the former Norfolk Street tracksite of the Waushakum Live Steamers in Holliston, MA in 1985. The DORK sitting behind him is a 14-year old 9th grader who happens to be "me". This was about 1 month before I began the 9th grade. Bob used to refer to me as a "little twirp". He certainly wasn't wrong.
Some high school freshmen were into girls and sports, some were into trains. This photo ought to tell you all you need to know about MY interests at age 13-14. Here, in the fall of 1985, I was tending to the fuel and water needs of Walter "Bud" Hansen's 3/4" scale 0-4-0 Camelback. I was 14 years old at the time. Bud is in the background. It was this experience, and experiences like this one, that began my love for "small scale" live steam and its preservation and availability.
I first saw live steam when I was about 10 years old (early 1980s), at an HO/Lionel model train show near my home.
I attended my first "live steam meet" at about age 12. At this meet, I met Brotherhood of Live Steamers founder Charles A. "Carl" Purinton, then in the final years of his life; and several others, including Charlie Purinton (Carl's son), Bill VanBrocklin (of the "steam pump" fame), and Bob Hornsby (the East Coast Region B.L.S. Secretary)
At age 13, my Dad took me to visit Little Engines at Lomita, CA; and also took me to visit Railroad Supply Corp. in Burbank, CA.
At age 14, I took a night course (for junior high school students) at a local vocational school that covered the setup and operation of South Bend lathes
In 1986, at age 15, I met Railroad Supply Corporation part-owner J. Nicholas (Nick) Edwards. I was invited to attend the Gold Spike meet at his new track in Nashua, NH.
I joined the North East Live Steamers in winter 1987, and that spring, bought a Friends Models locomotive from the widow of a deceased member of our club, the late J. Drennan "Doc" Lowell. It was a 3-1/2" gauge "Boston and Albany tanker", and was bought with money saved on my paper route. This locomotive is what instilled in me a love for the small scale designs of a prior era.
I met the Friends Models owner when I was about 18 years old. From then on, a friendship began that led to (several years later) my acquisition of the Friends Models/Yankee Shop line of live steamers.
At age 19, I bought a South Bend 10K lathe, and bought a kit of "Raritan" castings from Mr. William Morewood, its designer, at about the same time.
In 1992 (age 20), I began work on the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire. I was hired as a brakeman in June, 1992; I was promoted to Fireman in 1994; became an Engineer in 1996. I worked there for 3 years full time, and about 7 years part-time, during the 1990s and early 2000s. I "retired" from the Cog Railway in 2001 when I was 29 years of age.
In 2000 and 2001, I took 3 semesters of machine shop classes, and CNC machining classes, at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I began acquiring what remained of HJ Coventry's estate.
In the mid-2000s, I acquired "Friends Models" from the prior owner and began to seek other "long lost designs from Yesteryear" that may still exist.
Thank you for looking.
-John Kurdzionak
I did venture out to to larger gauge/scale steam meets from time to time, and here is an example. This is page 34 of the July, 1987 Modeltec magazine and it shows a very young "me" (on the left) at Nick Edwards' home in Nashua, NH. Nick was part-owner of Railroad Supply Corporation at the time and the occasion was Nick's "Gold Spike Meet" in October, 1986. I had just turned 15 years old. Mr. Frank Coughlin is on the right. Not only was this "large scale" to me, but this was a 7-1/2" gauge track that was located DEEP up in 7-1/4" country!
Twenty two years after 1986, in October 2008 I returned to Nashua NH for a steam meet at Nick Edwards' former home. My son has joined me in this photo taken at the same spot where the "1986" photo had been taken. Mr. Coughlin passed away some years ago.
At Nick Edwards' 1986 Gold Spike Meet, I had my camera with me. Here is Bill VanBrocklin Jr. (of the "steam pump" fame), running VanBrocklin #28, an 1-1/2" scale 4-4-0. (October, 1986 at Nashua, NH. Photo by John Kurdzionak).
June, 1987: I have lost the dorky looks. At a meeting of the North East Live Steamers at the track of Richard Symmes in Litchfield, NH, I (2nd from right, age 15) and my younger brother David (on the right, age 10) look on as Rob Quagan tends the fire on my 3/4" scale Boston and Albany 4-6-6 tanker. I bought this locomotive with my paper route money about 2 months prior to this photo. That's Railroad Supply Corporation owner Mike McClure on the left, with his son Stephen (now in his 20s!). This locomotive, and steam-up scenes like this, inspired me to do something about availability of castings for small-scale live steam.
It's January 2009, and I am here with my beloved Boston and Albany tank engine. I have not owned it since 1995 but had the opportunity to visit it in Jan. 2009.
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This is me in 1997 on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway. My several years on the railway had a substantial and profound influence on my character. It is the best job I ever had.
