The Latest News

Hi Folks:

I have not blogged you all in a while and must tell you there has been a lot going on. On Wednesday Nov. 10th, I was in Ocala, FL with Jim Manzone, president of the Ocala Model Railroaders Historic Preservation Society. Jim is painting the model train donated by Bachmann Trains, we will be using in the film. He is doing a great job and you can see the photos from my trip in a new section of the website you can find here: http://www.engineeringtragedy.com/The_Model_Train.html

We have also picked up a new sponsor The Canton Bandag Co. and they are repairing the wheel of the fire steamer owned by Dave McCaff, so we can use it in the film. The Canton Bandage Co. is the ONLY company in the world that still makes old solid rubber tires. The wheels on this 1892 American La France Fire Steamer are large, heavy and they don't make parts for them anymore. I am very lucky that the only place in the world I could get this work done is right in my back yard. Dave McCaff was kind enough to allow us to use his fire steamer in exchange for getting the wheel repaired. Normally this repair would be around $2,700.00. Thankfully the owner of the Canton Bandag Co. (Dave Richards) likes our film project and has offered to do the repair as a donation. WOW, what a blessing that was!

The first photo you see is Patti looking at the broken wheel on the steamer in the barn and the second photo is the steamer outside the bar before it had a broken wheel and was still in operation.

The dirt moving at the Peterson farm in North Bloomfield, where we are building our outdoor movie set is done. Now we are waiting for the bridge and then we can start laying track, and decorating the mini set with trees and ground cover. 

I have about four more behind the scenes videos I need to edit and get up on the website. As soon as I get time to do that, I will get them up.

That's all the news for now!

Len Brown

Last Film Location Scouted

Hi Folks:

Yesterday Gary Tabor and myself went to the last film location that needed to be scouted. The Pymatuning Dam just over the Ohio line in Pennsylvania. This is an area we can use as the location to film action which takes place on the wooden pump house stairs.

We can also film victims being pulled from the gorge here. Its a much better location then Zoarville, Ohio and its closer to the area we are filming other scenes. Now I just have to get permission to film there. I talked with a Ranger at the park office, but the main Ranger I needed to speak with was not in. I left a business card and hope he will call me sometime soon.

After that, Gary and I stopped by Roger Peterson's house to drop off the train track Bachmann donated and experiment with the little Mantis rototiller to try and break up the large dirt balls created during the bridge set excavation. It worked great! Roger has done a great job getting this area ready for the bridge, but we have a few more work days up there before the snow flies to get it ready.

Its been a busy summer and now I need to start getting our grant applications in to finish our fundraising. If I can't get the funds raised all the other stuff we've been doing is for nothing. However, I have faith its all going to come together and I keep pushing forward.

Keeping the faith!

Len Brown

The Rest of the Train Is Off To Florida

Hi Folks:

On Monday the three train cars we were short and all the train track we needed for our mini movie set arrived as another donation from Bachmann Trains. Bachmann Trains out of Philadelphia, PA had been an AWESOME company sponsor for this film. They have donated close to $8,000 worth of product so we can recreate the Pacific Express #5 and bring it back to life on camera. Also, I can't even begin to thank all of the other people who have been working on this project, donating their time and money to help make this film a possibility.

Yesterday, I sent the last three train cars to Jim Manzone in Florida for painting and will be going to his home next week to interview him and film some of the painting process for the behind the scenes video.

At the end of this week I will be taking the track to Roger Peterson, in North Bloomfield, Ohio to use on the outdoor set he is building for the bridge and train for us to film.  I will also be going back to the Ohio and Pennsylvania border to scout another film location. 

Its all coming together!

Len Brown