In this episode of Living with Steam EXTRA, we'll conclude the story of William A. Steventon and how he came to develop the Railroad Record Club in the 1950s. It wasn't easy for Steventon to pull this venture off especially in an era where railroad sound recordings were in high demand amongst railfans yearning to relive the days of trains pulled by steam engines. Competition was out there and Steventon strived for a quality product that wouldn't bankrupt him in the process. Also featured in this...
Jul 16, 2025•1 hr 55 min•Season 3Ep. 6
On the evening of July 24, 1951, John M Prophet III drove his car into Cove, Pennsylvania; a small “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” town located north of Harrisburg, and right on the Pennsylvania Railroad's Middle Division mainline between Duncannon and Marysville. John wanted to make a special stop in Cove because he hoped to record Pennsy steam and diesel engines pulling trains at full speed. Cove was John’s first stop on the three day road trip he made back in July of 1951 where his intent was...
Jan 05, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Season 3Ep. 5
This is the second of a three part series documenting a road trip John M. Prophet III made back in July of 1951. In the last episode of Living with Steam, you heard the railroad sound recordings John made in Trenton, NJ; his last stop on the trip. Now, you'll hear the incredible recordings of many Pennsylvania Railroad trains John captured in Palmyra, NJ. In my opinion, these are some of his best work. Whether he liked it or not, John captured a slice of small-town America while he was in Palmyr...
Jun 16, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 3Ep. 4
This episode of Living with Steam features recordings John Prophet made at the Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger station in Trenton, NJ on July 27, 1951. As a bonus, the episode also features recordings John made during the last week Pennsylvania Railroad steam engines were used to pull passenger trains in and out of Buffalo, NY.
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In this episode of LwS EXTRA, you'll be introduced to the railroad sound recordings John M. Prophet made after 1955, when he put away his Webster-Chicago wire recorder in favor of a new magnetic tape recorder. The tape featured in this episode is one John labeled as being "#1" in a set of five tapes he had grouped together. As you'll hear, the fourth tape has gone missing. John made these recordings shortly after the Penn Central declared bankruptcy and thus plunged the railroad industry into un...
Jan 08, 2024•47 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Welcome to the first episode in season 3 of Living with Steam. In July of 1949, John Prophet paid another visit to New York Central’s Bay View (BV) interlocking tower, which was located in Blasdell, NY. In reality, John stopped by BV tower accompanied by his sister Annette and a few of his close friends six out of the seven days during the week of July 24; recording a few trains every evening. During these visits, John concentrated almost entirely on getting recordings of Pennsylvania and Nickel...
Sep 30, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 1
“About half-past three o’clock yesterday afternoon, the telegraph flashed the news to this city that an accident had occurred near the Village of Angola, to the New York Express train, on the Lake Shore Road, due at Buffalo at 1:30 pm, and that there was a fearful loss of life.” 84 years later, on Sunday, July 22, 1951, John got in his car and drove down to the Village of Angola, NY to make some recordings of NKP and PRR trains. The NKP Angola station wasn't being used at that point, but freight...
Mar 19, 2023•54 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In this episode of Living with Steam EXTRA, we continue the story of William A. Steventon and how he took the practice of sharing railroad sound recordings with like-minded railfans to a whole new level. As strange as it may sound to us now, back when the railroad industry dominated the American landscape, railfans were sharing photographs, movies, and eventually, sound recordings of trains with each other. A simple “letter” or advertisement placed in a newspaper or trade magazine would serve to...
Jan 18, 2023•59 min•Season 2Ep. 10
On September 22, 1949, John M. Prophet III brought his Webster-Chicago wire recorder to New York Central's Tower 50; a very busy interlocking tower located right in the heart of Downtown Buffalo, and perhaps one of the best locations for capturing non-stop train activity. Unfortunately for John, he arrived at the tower just as Buffalo was about to experience one of the worst weather events of 1949. It was unseasonably cold, with heavy thunderstorms, wind, and hail all occurring throughout the ti...
Nov 20, 2022•59 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In this episode of LwS EXTRA, we begin our look at the life and legacy of William A. Steventon and the Railroad Record Club. The RRC was a brilliant and very innovative way for Steventon to share the many sound recordings he made in addition to those from other railfans who also started making recordings of trains from the mid 1950s onward. The introduction of the “consumer model” portable tape recorder made it possible for dozens of “Railroad Sounds Audio Recording Engineers” to hit the road an...
Oct 08, 2022•52 min
This episode of Living with Steam features recordings John M. Prophet III made in the late evening (and early morning) of September 18 (19), 1948 at BV Tower in Blasdell, NY. John made a total of 19 recordings at this interlocking tower and this is one he labeled “#6.” While the recordings contained on this spool of wire are not spectacular by any means… in fact, the quality of the audio is pretty lousy compared to his other recordings… they’re included here as part of John’s total output simply...
Aug 17, 2022•34 min•Season 2Ep. 5
On Memorial Day weekend in 1973, Ross Rowland Jr.'s High Iron Company organized an excursion train to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. The train would be pulled by ex-Reading #2102 dressed up to look like D&H #302. Jim Van Brocklin, who along with John Prophet was a prominent member of the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the NRHS, packed his family into the car and chased the train from just outside Hoboken, NJ to Binghamton, NY. Prior to this event, howev...
Jun 13, 2022•25 min
In May of 1951, John Prophet took his wire recorder to Interlocking Tower XC in Erie, PA. XC sat at the junction of the New York Central's 6-track east/west main line, and the north/south P&E Branch of the PRR. This was perhaps the busiest location John ever recorded from as ore and freight trains on the Pennsy ran on a continuous basis as they made their way from two nearby freight yards to the very busy "Anchor Line Docks" that sat right on the shores of Lake Erie. Iron ore and coal were t...
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Season 2Ep. 4
This is the first episode of Living with Steam EXTRA, where between episodes of the main podcast, I'll share railroad recordings made by folks other than John Prophet. On a cold, early evening in February 1993, I was inside Central Terminal in Buffalo, NY having a "look-around" with several friends. While everyone was off exploring the tower section, I wandered up to the 10th floor because I wanted to attempt to make a recording of what the outside of the facility sounded like. The mainline of t...
Apr 06, 2022•21 min
On Tuesday, May 1, 1951, John M. Prophet III brought his wire recorder to New York Central's Interlocking Tower 47; located on the Central's mainline about a mile east of Buffalo Central Terminal. At first glance, the tower seemed like it was built in a spot where it wasn't needed. But when you dig deeper, Tower 47 played a very important role in keeping New York Central's steam engines (and later diesel locomotives) operating in perfect working order. The tower also controlled freight train mov...
Jan 29, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 3
After spending Christmas of 1948 with his family, John M. Prophet III drove to Westfield, NY to visit some friends on the 26th. While there, he stopped at the Westfield passenger station in order to set up the wire recorder and capture whatever train happened by. If the town name "Westfield, NY" sounds familiar to you American History aficionados, then you'd be correct in saying that Westfield has a definite page in the book of American History.
Dec 08, 2021•28 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Welcome to Season Two of Living With Steam. In this episode, we'll learn about the life of John M. Prophet and how he came to be such a knowledgeable and dedicated railfan; eventually becoming the foremost expert on the Pennsylvania Railroad for his time. John was born in 1915, and from a very early age, he was constantly exposed to railroad activity that serviced his family's business in Mt. Morris, NY. It was inevitable that trains would become the primary focus of his life... eventually leadi...
Nov 07, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 2Ep. 1
In June of 1953, John Prophet packed up his car and drove out of Buffalo to begin an excursion by heading east/south-east. He visited Altoona, Tyrone, and Cresson, PA, and he also went as far as Cumberland, MD... always trying to stay within sight of railroad tracks... always on the lookout for active steam engines on ANY railroad. On June 28, John found himself in Shawsville, VA. His intentions may have been to photograph and record trains of the Norfolk & Western in Roanoke, but instead, h...
Apr 03, 2021•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 13
The Pennsylvania Railroad's Rochester Branch ran through some of the most picturesque scenery in New York State, including Letchworth State Park, as wound its way between Rochester, NY and Olean, NY. Built on the abandoned towpath of the old Genesee Valley Canal, the Rochester Branch served dozens of small communities in this part of New York until regular passenger service was stopped in 1941. Freight service continued until the line was completely abandoned in 1963. The Niagara Frontier Chapte...
Feb 09, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 12
By the early 1950s, John Prophet was discovering all too well that steam engines were being dropped from mainline railroads all over the country. Even at Buffalo in 1951, John was seeing more diesel engines on the tracks of the New York Central than he had noticed only a year earlier. In order to try and capture steam engines still in use, John began to venture out of the Western New York area and into localities where railroads like the Erie and Delaware & Hudson were still running steam. T...
Dec 31, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 11
We return to NYC's Tower 49-A in Buffalo, NY on a warm evening on October 21, 1951. John Prophet is in the tower with his best friend, Sam Herrington for what amounts to a very busy remainder of Sam's shift. We'll also hear about Sam's hobby; building miniature steam trains, and how one was used in a Western New York amusement park.
Dec 07, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Interlocking Tower 49-A was a New York Central signal/switching tower located a mile west of Buffalo Central Terminal. John Prophet made some of his best recordings of New York Central, Pennsylvania, and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo trains from here. John's best friend, Sam Herrington, was an operator in the tower and he was able to get John inside to make recordings dozens of times when working the evening shift. It was a very warm evening this Sunday, October 24 in 1951, and the neighborhoo...
Oct 02, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 9
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad entered Buffalo, NY after it had acquired the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh in 1932. Regardless, it used the trackage and stations the B R &P had been using since 1881. John Prophet visited the Buffalo Division of the B & O, which ran between Buffalo and Pittsburgh, and made dozens of recordings featuring steam-powered trains as they were either approaching or leaving passenger stations. He also took several cab rides in B & O engines. These re...
Sep 15, 2020•57 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Thunderstorms and trains together create a fantastic audio experience. When the "train" is pulled by a steam engine, the experience is even more thrilling. In this episode, we'll travel with John Prophet to Big Moose, a small town in the Adirondack Region of New York State. It's here, during a strong thunderstorm, that John captured two New York Central trains on the Central's Adirondack Division which ran between Utica, New York, and Montreal, Canada. Big Moose was also the scene for a well-kno...
Sep 01, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Episode 6 of Living With Steam takes us to Niagara Falls, NY, and New York Central's Tower 65. This area was known as "Suspension Bridge" on all NYC timetables due to the history of this area where the very first railroad suspension bridge was built back in 1855. We'll learn more about the original Suspension Bridge, built by Charles Roebling, and how a visit from a special Pere Marquette train brought John Prophet out to Tower 65 in December of 1948. Be sure to visit Facebook.com/LivingWithStea...
Aug 18, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In this episode, we learn about Buffalo's streetcar system and hear IRC recordings made in North Buffalo in June of 1950. Then, we visit the Erie Railroad's Tower FW and learn how interlocking towers work. Finally, we take a ride with John Prophet on TH&B train #380, pulled by Hudson engine #502, as it makes its run from Hamilton, Ontario to Buffalo, NY.
Aug 02, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this episode, we visit New York Central's Tower 50 in Buffalo. NY on November 26, 1949. While perhaps not as "glamorous" a location as some others that John visited because there were no grade crossings where an engine could show off its whistle, Tower 50 was nonetheless an incredible location if you wanted to hear "train movements" since the tower was surrounded by tracks coming from several busy NYC lines in addition to freight yard trackage. We'll also hear the story of how John Prophet ca...
Jul 20, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 4
If portable tape recorders weren't available until around 1955, how did John Prophet capture his railroad sounds beginning in 1948? We'll learn all about the Webster-Chicago wire recorder in this episode and how John was able to work around its limitations in order to make the recordings featured on Living With Steam. This is portable "home recording" in its infancy and we'll explore how it was done.
Jul 05, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Before 1948, when portable sound recording devices came on the market, the only way for a Railroad Enthusiast like John Prophet to capture and preserve their love of trains was to use a still camera or a movie camera. What types of cameras were used and how difficult was it to capture a moving train using an old-fashioned 8mm movie camera? Featured in this episode are recordings from Bay View Tower in Blasdell, NY.
Jun 21, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In this episode, we’ll take a look at why archival preservation on film or audio recording device is such a necessity. Since we’re interested in the railroad industry of Buffalo, why was it so important to take pictures or make sound recordings of trains? Why did people find the need to preserve anything especially if what they were interested in was so common and thought to never go away? If the railroad industry was such an important part of American lives, why did most of it seem to disappear...
Jun 07, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 1
