The locker-hooking crafters were hard at work in this first of two “hooking” sessions.Teresa Little taught the other ladies how to be a “hooker”.Problem solving?Rick and Teresa Little with our special guest, Alice Hoover, aka Mrs. Arnold Medbery, who entertained us with her life story as an early eighteen hundreds wife of one of the original Roscoe Village founders Arnold Medbery.Mrs. Arnold Medbery sharing her life story living in Roscoe Village during the 1800s.
Sunflowers at the KOA campground – they let us walk through the fields and take one per person as a souvenir.
SunflowersSunflowersSunflowersSunflowersSunflowersSunflowersSunflowersSunflowersSunflowersSunflowersThe Sunflower festival started on the Friday that we departed, so ours was a sneak preview.Molly seems bored by the whole affair.Bees like sunflowers too.Lots of SunflowersBees like sunflowers too.
Horse Drawn Canal Boat Ride
Listening to our guideA worker walks along the bank with the two draft horses.Canal boat rideHow to steer without using your hands. Looking forward from the rear over the roof.The canal is dead calm. The speed limit is 4 mph, so we were legal at 2.8mph, not even leaving a wake.A look over the roof from the front towards the backJohn Pryzbylek with our horsepower.Moored, ready for the next group of passengers.The Monicello III horse drawn canal boat floats down a restored section of the Ohio and Erie Canal in historic Roscoe Village. Several of the GMC Great Lakers took part in this activity during the rally.Several of the GMC Great Lakers who enjoyed the scenic canal boat ride.The Monicello III canal boat.Our helmsman working on our trip through the canal.Our helmsman concentrating on getting us through the canal.
Age of Steam Roundhouse Tour
The Age of Steam Roundhouse is a working facility for the preservation, restoration, repair and maintenance of train memorabilia, particularly steam locomotives. It houses the train collection of Jerry Jacobson, a former owner of the Ohio Central Railroad System.
Our guide has everyone’s attention as he starts to explain the history of the roundhouse.This locomotive used compressed air at about 1000psi instead of steam for propulsion. Jerry Newman wants to inspect the rivets to make sure it won’t explode.GMCers outside the roundhouse with some of the train collection in the backgroundThe 132 foot diameter turntable can swivel to maneuver loads up to 400 tonsWhat’s it take to make steam? Coal and water – lots of it!Looking across the turntable. The two diesel locomotives on the right were purchased on eBay.This roundhouse has 18 stalls ranging in length from 97 feet to 160 feet.Restoration involves a lot of preparation before painting can begin.#12 is in stall #1, which has tracks into the machine shop where heavy lifting work can be done by cranes.Jerry Newman, John Koenig and John Shotwell pause next to some modestly sized connecting rods. I wonder if they might fit a GMC?75″ Diameter drive wheels are taller than John and Jerry.The gridwork painted on the center locomotive is used to identify the hundreds of locations that must be checked for integrity every 15 years using ultrasound.Trains, trains and more trains.No. 105, a switcher, was constructed by Baldwin Locomotive Works in January 1917, for John Marsh, Inc., railroad contractors. Photos of No. 105 taken in 1948 show it at one of Strum & Dillard’s gravel pits in Circleville. In 1884 Strum and Dillard entered the railroad construction business. Between 1902-1904 the company had the huge task of building much of the Norfolk & Western’s Big Sandy main line including the famous Elkhorn Tunnel.Built in June 1948 for the Canadian Pacific by the Canadian Locomotive Company in Kingston, Ontario, it would be out of work within a decade as dieselization spread accross Canada. Retired in 1959, No. 1293 sat in ever dwindling lines of down and out locomotives waiting their turn to go into the scrapper. Luckily, in 1964, F. Nelson Blount moved her to his Steamtown, USA museum in Bellow Falls, Vermont. With minor repairs this 4-6-2 was pulling short tourist trains at Steamtown and was also used to pull the Vermont Bicentennial Train in 1976. In 1996 Jerry Jacobson purchased this 4-6-2, rebuilt it to operational condition and in the fall of 1997 returned it to pull summertime tourist trains on his Ohio Central Railroad. Today, No. 1293 is in perfect running condition. Only one-half dozen G-5 Pacifics still exist but No. 1293 is the only one operational.No. 612 United States Army Transport Corps, “G. I” 2-8-0 is one of 2,120 S160 -class locomotives built during World War II by the U. S. companies Alco, Baldwin and Lima for railroad service in North Africa, Asia, England, South America and almost all of Europe. These locomotives were designed with a compact loading gauge for use on British railways so they could fit through low-clearance tunnels. The first G.I. 2-8-0 to arrive in Europe was unloaded in South Wales on December 13, 1942 followed by 800 additional units placed into service in the first years of the war. Nearly all were sent across the Channel to the European continent after D-Day. Like much military equipment headed into battle, the G. I.2-8-0s were intended for a short duration existence of only six years, but many saw service in far-flung areas of the world for three more decades. Eight G. I. 2-8-0s have been preserved on American soil, and about two-dozen others survive worldwide. This G. I. 2-8-0 was built at Baldwin during 1943 but was never shipped overseas. It remained stateside and was used to train locomotive operation and maintenance at the U. S. Army Transportation School at Ft. Eustis, Virginia until the end of steam operations there in 1972. It was purchased on May 13, 2015 by the Age of Steam Roundhouse. It will be restored to its original 1943 military appearance and called back to active service.This 2-6-2 locomotive was built in 1901 for the McCloud River Railroad of California, a logging line up in the Sierra Mountains, by Baldwin Locomotive Works. Designed to burn wood and equipped with large, balloon smokestacks whose heavy netting collected live embers. But wood burning boilers had several drawbacks including the labor associated with handling and storing the wood resulting in its conversion in 1920 to oil. This 2-6-2 loco was retired in 1934, rebuilt in 1937 and bought by the Yreka Western Railroad in 1939. From 1944-2001, several railroads owned and operated the loco until Jerry Jacobson acquired it on August 25, 2015.This locomotive was built by H. K. Porter in Pittsburgh during April 1897 for the Carnegie Steel plant in Cochran, PA. Later, it was transferred to the U. S. Steel plant in Duquesne. When retired from active duty, this privately owned 0-4-0T was displayed at the Station Square complex in downtown Pittsburgh. Decades later when that business closed in 1978, Fred W. Oakie donated this locomotive to the Borough of Sewickley, PA. Nicknamed Tom Thumb, this tiny engine was on display outdoors in Riverside Park with its small locomotive tender and a very rare, wooden 4-wheel bobber caboose. Twenty five years later, the Borough of Sewickley deciderd to find a new home for Tom Thumb but stipulated the that it must be maintained for historical and cultural preservation. On November 15, 2013 it was announced that the Age of Steam Roundhouse had tendered the highest bid and and best future home for these railroad relics.Built in 1910 by the Canadian Locomotive Company for the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, this steamer was used primarily on the Canadian prairie branch lines. Acquired by Steamtown in 1961 and later sold to Horst Muller of Canada. Jerry Jacobson purchased the locomotive in 1994 and the century old 2-6-0 sits retired in the Age of Steam Roundhouse.After the Revolutionary War the Brooklyn Navy Yard was established on the east bank of the harbor in New York City. It’s purpose was to help construct, renovate, repair, resupply and maintain America’s growing Atlantic Fleet. Keeping that huge operation going required the 1918 construction of the U. S. Navy Fleet Supply Base-South Brooklyn Section. In March 1919 the base purchased heavy 0-6-0T from H. K. Porter, a Pittsburgh builder of small, industrial locomotives. In order to facilitate refueling, the coal fired steamers were converted to burn Bunker C oil, the same fuel used in Navy ships, On December 25, 1963 the use of steamers ceased operation at the yard with the conversion to diesel locomotives. Fortunately, all of the steamers in operation at that time were saved and preserved. In January 1977 this locomotive became part of the State Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg. In 2010 it was declared surplus. The Age of Steam Roundhouse wrote a proposal requesting the loco and two surplus Department of Defense flatcars. The proposal was accepted and the loco and cars arrived in Sugarcreek, OH on December 8, 2011.Number 1 compressed air 0-4-0 locomotive, built in 1890 by H. K. Porter had two cylindrical tanks that held stored, pressurized air to move the pistons. This allowed locomotive use inside enclosed areas without fumes, heat, and sparks associated with burning coal. Porter built more than 400 compressed air locomotives for use in mines, factories, textile mills, refineries, munitions plants, food handlers, sugar cane plantations and even the street railways of New Orleans. By 1900 Porter captured 90% of this market and built hundreds of these locos between 1896 – 1930. This locomotive, designated as model PPP, was ordered by Dilbert, Bancroft & Ross, in 1915, a large Louiaiana foundry that built sugar cane machinery. In 1935 it was repatriated back to the United States from Cuba and wound up working for the New Orleans Sewage and Water Board. In 2015, it was acquired by the Age of Steam Roundhouse.Built in 1920 at the Brooks Works of the American Locomotive Company for Kelly’s Creek & Northwestern Railroad, a remote lumber hauler deep in the mountains of West Virginia. After a virtually unknown and unseen career it was sold to the Midwest Steel Corporation for scrap. In 1954 it was purchased by a nearby steam stalwart, Buffalo Creek & Gauley. Each year the BC&G steamers pulled one million tons of coal between Dundon and Widen. It all ended in 1964. During the next 20 years the loco bounced around between one short lived tourist railroad to another. In 1993 Jerry Jacobson acquired the 2-8-0 loco as a backup locomotive for his Ohio Central tourist railroad.The business side of the Age of Steam Roundhouse.A blacksmith custom fabricated 174 identical hinges for the 23 locomotive size doors. Measuring up to 16 1/2 feet high, each half of these huge double doors weighs one ton, yet each is so perfectly balanced on its hinges that it can be swung open with a touch of just one finger. Each 41/2 inch thick half door is held together with 200 square-headed steel bolts.To support 415,000 pounds of water in a filled 50,000 gallon wood water tank, a dozen 25 foot long wood pilings were driven into the ground beneath the tank’s 17 foot tall, 16″ x 16″ white oak columns. The inside and outside surfaces of the 2″ x 6″ Western red cedar staves were cut on a ten foot radius to form a smooth circle of boards when assembled.Saddletank 0-4-0T built by Alco’s Cooke Works in January 1926 in Paterson, New Jersey. In 1929 it was purchased by the Southern Wood Preserving Company, a company making creosote pressure-treated railroad ties at one of its plants in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This locomotive switched specially built rail cars that carried raw oak timbers into -and coal tar treated railroad ties out of-the pressurized treatment plant. After it was retired, No. 3 became the property of Paul Merriman, who was one of the founders of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. In 1994, No. 3 was sold to Jerry Jacobson and trucked to Coshocton, OH.In 1928 the Alabama, Tennessee & Northern short line railroad ordered from the Baldwin Locomotive Works three light 2-10-0 or Decapod type steamers. Decapods were larger and produced more tractive effort but spread that increased locomotive weight over five driving axles. This reduced their axle loading to 19 tons allowing them to operate on the lighter rails used by most short lines. Their tenders carried 12 tons of coal and 7,000 gallons of water. In 1946 this loco was sold to the Georgia Car & Locomotive Company, a dealer in used railroad rolling stock. On May 13, 1948 it was resold to the Woodward Iron Company where it pulled trains of coal and limestone from the company mines and quarries to their pig ironmaking mills in Woodward, AL. Retired from the Woodward Iron Company in 1959 it was purchased by the Mid-Continent Railroad Museum in North Freedom, WI in 1964 as the museum’s largest locomotive exhibit. During May of 2015, it went on the auction block and Jerry Jacobson was the sole bidder and thus acquired the 2-10-0 and its tender.Steam locomotive Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 Berkshire No. 763 was constructed in August 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio as a high-horsepower, high-speed freight hauler to move reefers of perishables (meat, fruits and vegetables) between Chicago and Buffalo. She pulled 70 mph freight trains until June 1958 when the realities of dwindling part supplies and escalating labor costs finally conspired to give the nod to more efficient diesel locomotives. They were officially retired in August 1960 when the 2-8-4s began moving dead-in-tow to scrap yards. Four were preserved in museums and two remained – No. 757 in Bellevue and No. 763 in Conneaut. Finally, in 1966 each went to museums in Pennsylvania and Virginia. No. 763, now owned by Norfolk & Western, NPK’s new corporate parent, considered her for use in the American Freedom Train in 1976. That plan did not work out and Jerry Jacobson acquired the locomotive and was returned to the Buckeye State in 2007.Constructed during 1942 by American Locomotive Company’s Schenectady Works, Grand Trunk Western dual-service 4-8-4 No, 6325 hauled both wartime material and passenger trains between Detroit and Chicago. In September 1945 this locomotive was chosen to pull President Truman’s re-election campaign special, an assignment that would lead to its preservation in 1959 at Battle Creek, Michigan. In 1993, Jerry Jacobson purchased the locomotive, refurbished it and on July 31, 2001 No. 6325 steamed away under its own power.Visitor center at the Age of Steam RoundhouseThe Age of Steam Roundhouse was built by Jerry Joe Jacobson, former CEO of the Ohio Central Railroad System (OCRS). Jacobson kept a collection of vintage steam and diesel locomotives, other old equipment, and a depot at Sugarcreek, Ohio. He bought 34 acres in Sugarcreek and began constructing a roundhouse to house his collection. The roundhouse building, containing 18 stalls, was completed in 2011 and all of the steam locomotives, along with a few other select pieces of rolling stock in Jacobson’s collection, were moved inside the roundhouse. The Age of Steam Roundhouse website says it was the “first full-sized, working roundhouse built in the U.S. since 1951”. It’s goals are to preserve the railroad heritage, especially steam and diesel locomotives, for future generations. Architect F. A. Goodman says the building is 48,000 square feet and of “solid masonry walls” and “heavy timber framing”. Each stall is large enough for a locomotive and its tender. The Goodman company says the roundhouse is one of the largest heavy timber structures in America.
