Henry Hospers

kurtkk posted on Chaksi.org:


 * I have read many posts regarding my grandfather Henry Hospers and his locomotive models. I have always been curious where they all ended up. I believe I am the owner of the missing "Hudson" by the way.

Steve Bratina replied:


 * While I never met your grandfather, Harold Crouch told me quite a bit about him. I know that his 1" Royal Scot is in the Buffalo area. It was owned by one of the Robinson's at one time. His 1" Princess 4-6-2 frame and tender are with someone in the Montreal club. His Niagara first went to Larry Smith of the Finger Lakes club. Here the crown sheet was toasted and Larry and Harold changed the stays in the firebox. It then went to Ken Hill in Ontario. I was told he took it to the Richmond Hill track and when they placed it on the turntable for the hi line, the table started to tip. They took it off and he put it back in the car. It was up at the McJannett's ground level 1" track where it had a roaring coke fire and no water in the boiler. I have seen pictures of it sitting in the grass after the fire was dumped. I bought it next and was going to rebuild it. I remember that the old stays from the first repair were still in the boiler rattling around. I had the frame up and running on air and even took it to the FLLS track to show. Later I realized it was way too heavy for any hi line track at our club so I eventually sold it. It was reportedly sold again to a gent in Texas. Before I let it go, I took the front number plate off and gave it to Harold a a keep sake. I have some other pictures but will have to dig them up. Here's one of the Niagara running at Larry Smith's home track in the US.





Letter to Editor
From Live Steam Magazine, April 1973:


 * February 1973 Live Steam came yesterday. Now you're getting somewhere!  Those Hudsons were magnificent.  I know them all.  I babied them, (the streamlined versions also) because I was a locomotive inspector at the Rochester engine house of the NYC before I retired 12 years ago.  I knew Paul Kiefer, also Mr. Buyse.  Mr. Buyse was a visitor at my house before he moved away.


 * The enginemen of the Empires, Ohio State, Twentieth Century and Wolverine I knew them: Kramer, Antiyunti, McDonald, McCarthy and a few more.  Many a time I rode the cabs.  I also know Clyde Redfield of the Lehigh Valley's Black Diamond.  The memories that the new generation is missing are alive in our Live Steam clubs all over the land.


 * The 6000 Niagara's--the most beautiful of all. #6017 came in the hallway and I had to take care of her.  Ten new driver brake-shoes she needed.  She came in the night before on the Genesee.  I took out her mileage tape and no wonder--107 miles an hour!  Billy Bergain certainly wheeled her.


 * Another one later on #6009: I took out her tape, the pencil had gone off the tape at better than 120 miles an hour. Two more tapes that I took out of #6004 and #6011 showed both had been running 111 and 114 miles an hour.  The time card between Wayneport Tower and Brighton Tower is 8-1/2 miles and 14 trains must do it in 7 minutes with 6000's and the J-3's.  Those enginemen of ours are mostly gone now.  Of the men I worked with, only a few are left.


 * I'm finishing my second Hudson and in a couple months I'll have her running.


 * Although we have never met, there is a bond between us.


 * Henry Hospers
 * 98 Argyle Street
 * Rochester, N.Y. 14607

From Live Steam Magazine, July 1976:


 * Usually when a student graduates from an engineering school he usually constructs something. Well, while in my apprenticeship in the New York Central engine house in Rochester, NY, I did just that.  I built a steam engine.  A bunch of us congregated in the store room where there was an air line.  We hooked it up to watch it run.  It was running full tilt.  Just then the master mechanic walked in and saw us.  "What's going on?" Joe Jervis said.  "We're watching Red's engine run."  The M. M. asked, "Where did you get the parts?"  I said, "From the scrap pile."  "Scrap pile! I want to talk with you in the office."  I went.  He said, "Anyone who can take scrap iron and make something with it can do anything.  So that's achieving an object in your apprenticeship!"


 * Another time I was asked to go in the machine shop and make six boiler studs. Well, I made seven studs.  On the seventh stud I turned a left-handed thread.  Boiler studs are tapered and have twelve threads.  I kept a good one in my pocket and gave the others to the boiler foreman.  All the boilermakers tried to screw that left-hand stud in a right-handed hole.  The boiler foreman came to me and asked me to screw it in.  I put it in my pocket, took the other one out and screwed it in.  "Something's screwy here!"  The terminal foreman heard it.  When he got the full story, he laughed his head off.  An apprentice showing up the boilermakers!


 * All those men are gone. I think there are only four or five left, all in their 70's.  I'll be 80 soon, and have just completed another steam engine - 1/2 horsepower, also a boiler for it.


 * Henry Hospers
 * 98 Argyle Street
 * Rochester, NY 14607

Royal Scot
Steve Bratina sent the following email, 31 July 2020:


 * I thought you might want to add a picture or two of Henry's 1" Royal Scot. These pictures were taken in July of 2020 and show she is still adding up the miles on the highline.