The Fisher family first settled in Manfred, North Dakota and lived in an old boxcar minus the wheels of course, sitting out in a field near the railway tracks. This was not uncommon to see settlements of families living like this in the North Dakota prairies. After moving to Harvey, North Dakota and settling into their first home in town, Larry remembers a wonderful life there growing up with his brother, parents, and other members of the Fisher family relatives. For Larry there was always lots to do in and around the town, especially near the railway tracks, watching the steam engines moving around the yards switching railcars and watching the passenger trains as they came and went through town, stopping at the Harvey Railway Station at the end of main street.​

There was not a shortage of things to do besides attending school, such as, swimming if the weather permitted, was always a priority, then of course lots of baseball games. As the young boys from town, would have their own “Field of Dreams” baseball field cut out of a vacant pasture just outside of town. The early years of playing baseball with Darrell, would be the last time they played together as brothers. Darrell was older than Larry by a few years and was the first to leave home and worked on building his further life working on the railroad. As Larry got older in his teens, he found himself shooting call shot, straight pool, and snooker ball after school and weekends. ​

Following graduation from Harvey, North Dakota High School in 1957, Larry joined the United States Air Force and found himself based in Alaska. He continued drawing in the barracks and including them with his letters back home to the family. After returning home from his stint in the Air Force, Larry tried working at different jobs, such as driving a cab in and around the Fargo, North Dakota area. He then took a job working for KTHI-TV in Fargo, North Dakota as a cameraman and set designer. While living and working in Fargo, Larry met his wife to be, Carol. In August 1969 Larry accepted a job offer at KSHO-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada. A month later he sent for Carol, they were married on November 8th. 1969 at the Little Church of the West Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. They started a family, Sheryl in 1972 and three years later son Jon was born. They settled in for a wonderful family life together.

The post Around the Roundhouse By Larry Fisher appeared first on Southern Pacific Railroad History Center.

Canadian artist Wentworth D. Folkins is internationally recognized as one of the world’s most accomplished painters of steam trains and steamship subjects. His Love of steam trains and steamships and his unusual talent in depicting them. This comes from a close association with railways and steamships beginning from childhood. Wentworth’s father Donald, was a railroad man in the early years of Wentworth growing up. Growing up in the golden age of steam, the artist learned about his complex subject under the guidance of a sympathetic expert. That explains the technical accuracy of Folkins’ artwork, the meticulous attention to detail that has captivated art buffs and art collectors of railroads and steamboats. Wentworth did not simply paint trains, ships and other modes of transportation, he painted the relevance of every subject.

His paintings captured what steam transportation meant to individuals and society more evocatively than words can express. The many train trips that a young Wentworth made with his engineer father during the 1930s and 1940s left an indelible impression with the impact of the railroad on a young and growing country.  Folkins knew very well that his artwork was about a vanished people and a vanishing lifestyle, not just about steam trains and steamships that were supplanted by the diesel engine era in the mid-1950s. Wentworth painted a number of different railways on his travels throughout Canada, United States, United Kingdom and countries in Europe.

Wentworth D. Folkins was born in Cochrane, Ontario on August 12, 1928 and lived in a small northern Ontario community until the 1950s, attending both Primary and High School in the town.  Being a railroad man, his father had a family Canadian National Railway pass to travel yearly anywhere in North America. Quite obviously, the Folkins family were small-town people, so they chose to visit small towns. They understood small towns. There was a determined denial of the big city, urban drift and technological progress in his work. His focus on steam trains was an anchor that kept his imagination firmly rooted in small towns where the puffing locomotives once served, in a way of life that once was. In the artist’s loyalty to “things past” lay an unexpected treasure for all of us. His paintings are not really canvases at all, they are mirrors. They show us, when we look into them, the way we were…and perhaps, the way we should have remained.

The world of Wentworth D. Folkins has not been spun from an imaginary fabric of anywhere and anytime, it is firmly rooted in a place, time and reality where we have been…and to which we can never return. So, look first at the steam trains…it’s obligatory…and then look at the times, places and soul of the world that Folkins’ steam locomotives and steamships evoke. Sooner or later, you’ll recognize some half-remembered part of yourself taking life on the canvas. This is evidence in the publication of Wentworth’s book titled, “The Great Days of Canadian Steam.”

​Wentworth D. Folkins passed away on August 29, 1993.

The post The San Francisco Overland By Wentworth D. Folkins appeared first on Southern Pacific Railroad History Center.

The Fisher family first settled in Manfred, North Dakota and lived in an old boxcar minus the wheels of course, sitting out in a field near the railway tracks. This was not uncommon to see settlements of families living like this in the North Dakota prairies. After moving to Harvey, North Dakota and settling into their first home in town, Larry remembers a wonderful life there growing up with his brother, parents, and other members of the Fisher family relatives. For Larry there was always lots to do in and around the town, especially near the railway tracks, watching the steam engines moving around the yards switching railcars and watching the passenger trains as they came and went through town, stopping at the Harvey Railway Station at the end of main street.​

There was not a shortage of things to do besides attending school, such as, swimming if the weather permitted, was always a priority, then of course lots of baseball games. As the young boys from town, would have their own “Field of Dreams” baseball field cut out of a vacant pasture just outside of town. The early years of playing baseball with Darrell, would be the last time they played together as brothers. Darrell was older than Larry by a few years and was the first to leave home and worked on building his further life working on the railroad. As Larry got older in his teens, he found himself shooting call shot, straight pool, and snooker ball after school and weekends. ​

Following graduation from Harvey, North Dakota High School in 1957, Larry joined the United States Air Force and found himself based in Alaska. He continued drawing in the barracks and including them with his letters back home to the family. After returning home from his stint in the Air Force, Larry tried working at different jobs, such as driving a cab in and around the Fargo, North Dakota area. He then took a job working for KTHI-TV in Fargo, North Dakota as a cameraman and set designer. While living and working in Fargo, Larry met his wife to be, Carol. In August 1969 Larry accepted a job offer at KSHO-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada. A month later he sent for Carol, they were married on November 8th. 1969 at the Little Church of the West Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. They started a family, Sheryl in 1972 and three years later son Jon was born. They settled in for a wonderful family life together.

The post Servicing San Jose By Larry Fisher appeared first on Southern Pacific Railroad History Center.

The Fisher family first settled in Manfred, North Dakota and lived in an old boxcar minus the wheels of course, sitting out in a field near the railway tracks. This was not uncommon to see settlements of families living like this in the North Dakota prairies. After moving to Harvey, North Dakota and settling into their first home in town, Larry remembers a wonderful life there growing up with his brother, parents, and other members of the Fisher family relatives. For Larry there was always lots to do in and around the town, especially near the railway tracks, watching the steam engines moving around the yards switching railcars and watching the passenger trains as they came and went through town, stopping at the Harvey Railway Station at the end of main street.​

There was not a shortage of things to do besides attending school, such as, swimming if the weather permitted, was always a priority, then of course lots of baseball games. As the young boys from town, would have their own “Field of Dreams” baseball field cut out of a vacant pasture just outside of town. The early years of playing baseball with Darrell, would be the last time they played together as brothers. Darrell was older than Larry by a few years and was the first to leave home and worked on building his further life working on the railroad. As Larry got older in his teens, he found himself shooting call shot, straight pool, and snooker ball after school and weekends. ​

Following graduation from Harvey, North Dakota High School in 1957, Larry joined the United States Air Force and found himself based in Alaska. He continued drawing in the barracks and including them with his letters back home to the family. After returning home from his stint in the Air Force, Larry tried working at different jobs, such as driving a cab in and around the Fargo, North Dakota area. He then took a job working for KTHI-TV in Fargo, North Dakota as a cameraman and set designer. While living and working in Fargo, Larry met his wife to be, Carol. In August 1969 Larry accepted a job offer at KSHO-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada. A month later he sent for Carol, they were married on November 8th. 1969 at the Little Church of the West Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. They started a family, Sheryl in 1972 and three years later son Jon was born. They settled in for a wonderful family life together.

The post Black Widow Challenges Donner By Larry Fisher appeared first on Southern Pacific Railroad History Center.

The Fisher family first settled in Manfred, North Dakota and lived in an old boxcar minus the wheels of course, sitting out in a field near the railway tracks. This was not uncommon to see settlements of families living like this in the North Dakota prairies. After moving to Harvey, North Dakota and settling into their first home in town, Larry remembers a wonderful life there growing up with his brother, parents, and other members of the Fisher family relatives. For Larry there was always lots to do in and around the town, especially near the railway tracks, watching the steam engines moving around the yards switching railcars and watching the passenger trains as they came and went through town, stopping at the Harvey Railway Station at the end of main street.​

There was not a shortage of things to do besides attending school, such as, swimming if the weather permitted, was always a priority, then of course lots of baseball games. As the young boys from town, would have their own “Field of Dreams” baseball field cut out of a vacant pasture just outside of town. The early years of playing baseball with Darrell, would be the last time they played together as brothers. Darrell was older than Larry by a few years and was the first to leave home and worked on building his further life working on the railroad. As Larry got older in his teens, he found himself shooting call shot, straight pool, and snooker ball after school and weekends. ​

Following graduation from Harvey, North Dakota High School in 1957, Larry joined the United States Air Force and found himself based in Alaska. He continued drawing in the barracks and including them with his letters back home to the family. After returning home from his stint in the Air Force, Larry tried working at different jobs, such as driving a cab in and around the Fargo, North Dakota area. He then took a job working for KTHI-TV in Fargo, North Dakota as a cameraman and set designer. While living and working in Fargo, Larry met his wife to be, Carol. In August 1969 Larry accepted a job offer at KSHO-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada. A month later he sent for Carol, they were married on November 8th. 1969 at the Little Church of the West Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. They started a family, Sheryl in 1972 and three years later son Jon was born. They settled in for a wonderful family life together.

The post Showtime at the Mole By Larry Fisher appeared first on Southern Pacific Railroad History Center.