In this final episode of Season 1, we follow John Prophet on a trip he took in 1953 to several small towns outside of Roanoke, Virginia where he was very fortunate to record many Norfolk & Western steam engines. John caught multiple Y6 and J-class engines and much more.

This episode, we take a ride with the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the NRHS on a special excursion on the Pennsylvania Railroad's Rochester Branch on October 12, 1952. John Prophet recorded a portion of the trip from DL&W Junction at Mount Morris, NY to "Deep Cut" at Letchworth State Park.

John Prophet made a trip to Eastern New York in 1951. He was able to capture an Erie steam engine in the town of Port Jervis, NY; his one and only Erie recording. After that, John set up his wire recorder in Saratoga Springs, NY to catch several freight and passenger trains on the Delaware & Hudson.

In this episode, we'll once again return to New York Central's Tower 49-A on October 21, 1951. It was a very warm autumn evening in Buffalo, and John Prophet was spending time with his best friend, Sam Herrington, during his night shift as a New York Central Towerman.

This episode features a return to New York Central's Tower 49-A on a warm evening in October of 1951. The neighborhood was alive with activity and John Prophet was able to capture every bit of it.

This episode features several recordings John Prophet made of the B&O railroad as trains moved on its Buffalo Division; which ran between Buffalo and Pittsburgh in the southern-tire of Western New York.

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.

Episode 6 of Living With Steam features recordings made at New York Central's Tower 65 in December of 1948. This area was known as "Suspension Bridge" on all New York Central timetables due to its history as the location where the first railroad suspension bridge was built back in 1855.

Living With Steam Episode 5 features recordings made by John Prophet of Buffalo's International Railway Company (IRC) streetcars at Hertel Avenue (near Elmwood) in North Buffalo. It was June of 1950 and the last month that the streetcars would be running.

Tower 50 was located between the New York Central's East/West mainline and their Niagara Branch tracks to Niagara Falls. It was situated almost underneath the Seneca Street overpass bridge.

In this episode, we learn all about the Webster-Chicago wire recorder and record cutting; the only methods of making portable "field recordings" up until the time magnetic tape recorders were made available commercially around 1955. We’ll also features recordings from New York Central's Tower F in the Black Rock section of Buffalo.

This episode features recordings from Bay View Tower in Blasdell, NY. Even though the photograph below were taken in the early 90s, you can get a feel for the power of each train that passed on any of the four tracks in front of BV tower.

In first episode of Living with Steam, 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?

Welcome to Living With Steam. This podcast features the sounds of railroading in Buffalo and Western New York from 1948 to 1955. The recordings featured in this program were captured in the field by John Prophet using a portable wire-recorder; a technology that many people have never heard of.