Right after leaving work on Thursday, August 28, 1952, John hopped in his car and drove to Tyrone, Pennsylvania where he began to record as much Pennsylvania Railroad steam engines as possible. Known as "The Hub of the Highways", Tyrone was a big spot on the Pennsy's Middle Division trackage where the hauling of coal, iron ore, paper products and passengers occurred 24 hours a day... EVERY day. If John or anyone else wanted to make sound recordings or take photographs of PRR steam engines in action, Tyrone was the place to be.

Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan on this trip. John's "unrelenting standards" of doing everything possible to avoid making any recordings of PRR trains pulled by the new diesel engines caught up with him in a not-so-pleasant way... as you will hear.

This is part one of a two part episode featuring the recordings John made from August 28th until September 1st 1952.

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.

Also featured in this episode is a fun and informative interview I had with Ken Gear, who was at the right place at the right time to acquire the entire Steventon estate of Railroad Record Club archives even though it was in serious danger of being destroyed and lost forever.

In this episode of Living with Steam, you’ll hear the recording John Prophet made in Cove, Pennsylvania; a small town located between Duncannon and Marysville. In John’s mind, the Cove recordings were an absolute disaster due to the ever-present truck traffic that, at times, seemed louder than the train activity. But were the Cove recordings really that bad? Listen and find out for yourself.

On July 26, 1951, John spent the entire day recording the non-stop activity of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s busy commuter line that ran through Palmyra, New Jersey. In my opinion, the recorded material John captured in Palmyra is some of his finest work.