Monday, September 20, 2021

A B&O Engineer Retires – September 1951

During the 1950s, the days of steam-powered locomotives were numbered. The diesel trains that would replace them were easier to maintain, more efficient, more reliable and required smaller crews to run them. 

But what about the old-time railroaders who had spent their entire careers on steam locomotives?

Here’s a charming story about one of them – Frank C. Fairhead of Lorain – who would not have to deal with the coming changes, due to his retirement from the B&O after 45 years of service.

The article below ran in the Lorain Journal on September 13, 1951. 

The article notes, “Frank C. Fairhead, 65, 2338 Livingston-av, stepped from the cab of B. and O. engine 1057 yesterday afternoon, officially ending 45 years of service on that line.

“Fellow railroaders clustered around to congratulate Fairhead on his retirement, and Douglas Wallace, general yardmaster, was on hand to “order him from the cab of the engine” if need be. It was all in the spirit of fun, but the railroaders showed in their gruff way that the popular engineer would be missed at the local B. and O. yards.

“And Fairhead, by the way he looked back over his shoulder at old No. 1057, showed that he too was retiring with regret.

““That baby’s got the same type boiler our engines had when I started work here back in 1906,” Fairhead said. He explained that all the engines have been modernized, overhauled and safety devices added, but the “boilers remain of the same type as in the early 1900’s."

"Fairhead has been an engineer since 1913 and has spent the past 10 years in the yard. The previous 35 years were all spent on the road as fireman and engineer.

“The retiring railroader has long been associated with the Central Lorain’s Businessmen’s association and has taken an active interest in civic affairs.

“Fairhead won the plaudits of his co-workers and other B. and O. officials upon his retirement.

“Ralph Gohlke, terminal agent, said the veteran engineer was a “regular and faithful worker with an excellent safety record.”

“Now that his days of herding the iron horses are a thing of the past, Fairhead intends to turn his attention to his favorite hobby, flower raising. He will also undoubtedly spend a lot of time working on the model village in his backyard.”

2338 Livingston Avenue.
****
A funny thing happened while I was preparing this post. 
In an effort to find out more about Mr. Fairhead, I Googled his name and found a few mentions of him in Baltimore and Ohio Magazine. I decided to include this short article (below) from the October 1938 issue about a picnic of the B. & O. Athletic Association of Lorain held at Chippewa Lake. 
As it notes, “a special train of nine coaches left Lorain at 9:30 a. m. with 619 of our employees and their families. They arrived at the Lake at 11:00 a. m. and, after a day of great festivities, the return trip was made, leaving the lake at 6:00 p. m., and arriving back in Lorain at 7:15 p. m.
The article gives special credit to the crew who handled the train at no charge to and from the lake. The crew listing includes Engineer F. C. Fairhead; the fireman; the conductor; and E. J. Brady (my grandfather), one of the three brakemen that day.

9 comments:

  1. That current photo of Mr.Fairheads old former home is a reminder of how things have gone downhill in Lorain.About the only thing being raised in the backyard of that home now is marijuana plants.But while Frank was living there I bet it was a showpiece.A place to invite your friends over and celebrate life.A place that Frank was proud of.I did a little research and it is currently owned by a "Goersmeyer Properties LLC".So Frank's old home is now a rental property.And I 100% guess that it is Section 8 certified.Slumlord Central here we come.

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  2. Why don't you share your name so we can pick apart your property. Coward.

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    1. Said yet another "Anonymous". Let's just groove on the memories, nu?

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  3. I probably shouldn’t have posted the photo of the house out of respect to the current owners. It didn’t look that bad to me and I thought it enhanced the story a little bit showing where Mr. Fairhead lived.

    Another story from a 1938 “Baltimore and Ohio Magazine” mentioned that Mr. Fairhead had a beautiful rock garden that his wife was credited with designing.

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  4. I bet Frank would roll over in his grave if he knew what has happened to his old house and his-model village-or whatever that was in his backyard.These deadbeat landlords are a nuisance to not just Lorain-but any city.They buy a property for peanuts-put just enough upgrades in it to rent it out-and then gladly accept Section 8 monies from the government.All the while they don't even live anywhere near the houses that they own.I agree with "Anonymous".We need more people like Frank Fairhead and less people like these "slumlords".

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  5. I'm sure the current tenants of that house don't even know about this blog Dan.Or could care less.As they probably live there for a few months then skip out and then some other new tenants move in then stay a few months then skip out,etc.This goes on and on and on.A photo of the current state of that house was good for the story.It let's people know how it used to be when people like Frank lived there..But like the above posts mentioned,that area now is very bad.That house now is the type of house where you dump a dead body.Squatters probably have their little drug den in there.I better quit talking as people are being offended.But all of the above posts are true even if nobody wants to hear it.

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  6. I want to hear it.Don't let the naysayers discourage you.I like seeing and hearing about Lorains history.Good or bad.The truth hurts.That's just how the world works.

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  7. As a current Lorain "slumlord", I can assure all of you that I'm not the reason your city is falling apart. I have just as many rentals in Amherst, Vermilion, and Avon as I do in Lorain and those cities are great places to live. In Lorain, I would bet that 90% of the rentals were purchased for under 50k, meaning they were already junk houses when they became rentals and if I didn't buy them, who would? Most of them were already sitting vacant for a long time so it wasn't like I swept in and stole it from a nice family that wanted to buy it. The neighborhoods are already bad as mentioned in the comments above, so how could I justify putting another 50k into this house that will only rent for around 500 or 600 a month anyway? It's not all profits. We have taxes, insurance, repairs, and Lorain requires me to pay the water bills and I'm sure you all know how much Lorain's water bills are. And for the misinformed Section 8 comments, Section 8 requires landlords to provide a quality home for their tenants or you don't get paid. Section 8 rentals have more inspections than any other type of property. I can tell you with the utmost certainty that the house in the picture is not a Section 8 rental as it would not meet the requirements as it looks in the picture.

    In closing, I have no anger or anything towards anyone here. Just felt compelled to tell my side of the story. I won't be leaving my name to the wolves though. As always, I love the blog and no reason not to post that picture Dan. It helped tell the story.

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  8. Reading all these posts reminds me of that phrase that Paul Harvey used to close out his little stories with......."And now you know the rest of the story."

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