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.

This episode of Living with Steam features recordings John made at the Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger station while visiting friends 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.

This episode of LwS EXTRA introduces the railroad sound recordings John made after 1955 using magnetic tape rather than his wire recorder. The recordings featured are from a tape John called “PRR Diesels, 1970.”

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 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 Plate Road trains. Also featured in this episode is a story about how railroad matters were constantly being reported in the many newspapers published in Buffalo at the time.