The Bridge Arrived & The Big Dig!

Hi Folks:

Finally the Ashtabula Bridge section arrived in North Bloomfield at the Peterson farm where our outdoor set and miniature Ashtabula gorge has been dug by Roger Peterson Sr and his son. 

Its amazing how real this bridge looks! It's eight feet long and made with real miniature steel I-beams and a real wood deck across the top. This bridge is going to look great on camera with the train rolling across the top of it.

Thank you Mainline Bridges for this awesome donation and your sponsorship, and thank you Robert S. Morrison Foundation for providing some of the funding that paid to ship this bridge from Phoenix, AZ to North Bloomfield.

It should be noted, that this bridge will be donated to the Ashtabula Maritime and Surface Transportation Museum after filming.

If you would like to see the bridge, we will have it at The Lodge at Geneva on the Lake, Oct. 31st, 2013 from 1:00 - 5:00 PM, along with the train and many artifacts from the disaster. I will be speaking at a program as well as Carl Feather and Barbara Hamilton. The program is hosted by DiscoveryPaths LifeLong Learners as part of their lifelong learning series. The name of the program is "Really Horrible Disasters." Information about the program can be found here: http://www.thelodgeatgeneva.com/4317.aspx

In other news, we have been shooting B-Roll and interviews for the film as we gear up for major shooting to start when full funding is in place. As part of our shooting schedule, on Sept. 27, 2013 Dr. Don Stierman, a geophysicists from the University of Toledo came to the wreck site, with two of his grad students. They came to conduct a magnetometer survey of the area in hopes of finding a part of the bridge, which could then be sent to Case Western Reserve University's Engineering Lab for study. Unfortunately we found no large bridge parts, but were able to create a map of the ground under the site and found some interesting targets of interest. Armed with our survey map, metal detectors, shovels and picks we were able to return a few days later and locate more iron parts from the wreck as well as a coupling faceplate we think was from the Columbia engines tender. We also found bolts from the bridge, a track joint used to hook train track together on top of the bridge, a train car spring and a few broken car link pins. We are currently looking through old photos to verify if the coupling faceplate is in fact from the tender. This piece was found in the area where the Columbia was laying.

We filmed both days of digging and will include this as part of the documentary film. Below are photos from the dig.

A big thanks to the University of Toledo for doing the survey and the Township Parks Service for permission to dig and use of some of their equipment. Another big thanks to Fritz Kuenzel, David Tobias, Roger Peterson and Gary Tabor for all your help searching, digging and helping me drag all of my film gear down to the wreck site.

That's all to report for now.

Len Brown
Beacon Productions

The Latest News

Hi Everyone:

A lot has been happening since my last blog. Wow, where should I start?

First of all we have successfully filed our big grant with the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant was 135 pages long! It was a really tough grant, but when your asking for $800,000 they want to know everything about you and everything about the project including what you had for breakfast. Some very respectable people have evaluated our grant before it was sent it in and they think we have done a great job and have as good of a chance as anyone applying to win.

If you have not been to the website lately you will notice we have a number of team member that have been added. Let me introduce them to you.
 First on the list is William Grant - Executive-In-Charge:

Mr. Grant is the Executive-in-Charge of this production. William Grant is no stranger to PBS, producing thousands of hours of broadcast content. At WNET.ORG, Grant was in charge of the documentary production department, which produced national broadcast programs in the areas of natural history, science, history, business, travel, and other topics. While at WNET he was the executive producer of Innovation and Going Places and numerous miniseries, including America on Wheels, Savage Skies, Savage Earth, Savage Seas, Knife to the Heart, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, On the Trail of Mark Twain, The American President, In Search of Ancient Ireland, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Slavery and the Making of America, African American Lives, The Supreme Court 1, Looking for Lincoln and the series Secrets of the Dead. He has been responsible, as executive in charge of production, for Nature, one of public television’s most watched continuing series, and the miniseries Savage Planet, Secrets of the Pharaohs, Warship, Africa, 1900 House, Frontier House, Manor House, The Secret Life of the Brain, Colonial House, Texas Ranch House, Warplane, Ground War and the Human Spark. Previously he was at WGBH in Boston where he was managing editor of Frontline, and then executive editor of NOVA. 

Dr. Yakov Ben-Haim, Ph.D - Engineer and Scientist:

Dr. Ben-Haim holds the Yitzhak Moda'i Chair in Technology and Economics at

the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. He was chosen for this project based on his books and articles on decisions under uncertainty in many fields including engineering design and reliability, economics, medicine, biological

conservation, homeland security, epistemology, and more. His arguments about “how safe is safe” and “can there be progress without pain” are good discussions to be included in this documentary film. Prof. Ben-Haim also initiated “info-gap theory,” which is a method for analysis, planning, decision and design under uncertainty. He will also be assisting us with much of the humanities content of the film. “In the end, there is no progress without innovation; no innovation without discovery; no discovery without the unknown; no unknown without fear and there is no progress without pain.” Prof. Yakov Ben-Haim.

  Dr. Gladys Haddad, Ph.D. - Historian
 Dr. Haddad is professor of American Studies at Case Western Reserve University. She is also the founder and director of the Western Reserve Studies Symposium. A historian and regionalist, her scholarship is centered in Ohio’s Western Reserve. She has published on the history, literature and art of the region. Her most recent book is a biography entitled Flora Stone Mather: Daughter of Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue and Ohio’s Western Reserve. Dr. Haddad is very familiar with the history of Amasa Stone and his family. Flora Stone Mather was the daughter of Amasa Stone, the main character in our documentary. Dr. Haddad is also considered the “Dian Rehm” of the Western Reserve, and hosts a radio program entitled Regionally Speaking, which airs on the Universities radio station WRUW 91.1 FM. Besides a number of publications she is also the writer/producer of three documentaries: Samuel Mather: Vision Leadership, Generosity; Samuel and Flora Stone Mather: Partners in Philanthropy and Flora Stone Mather: A Legacy of Stewardship. 

  Dr. Mark J. Camp, Ph.D - Railroad Historian
Dr. Camp is a geology professor at the University of Toledo Dept. of Environmental Sciences. He is a longtime historian of early Ohio railroads and the author of several books on the subject including Railroad Depots of Northeast Ohio, his third book in a series of six or possibly seven books.  Dr. Camp became interested in trains and the railroad as a child when he and his father would create layouts for trains at their home. He also has a personal collection of thousands of slides, pictures and postcards filling 30 filing cabinets. Dr. Camp also serves as one of the directors of the Railroad Station Historical Society.

   Dr. Timothy M. Kalil, Ph.D. - Gospel Music Historian
Dr. Kalil grew up in Ashtabula, where the bridge disaster has always been a part of local history and lore. He became familiar with P.P. Bliss through playing and singing the composer’s hymns. Dr. Kalil was also a contributing author of the book Bliss & Tragedy: The Ashtabula Railway-Bridge Accident of 1876 and the Loss of P.P. Bliss. Besides being an accomplished pianist, instructor and conductor, Dr. Kalil has taught classes at the university level on Understanding (Western) Music, History of Jazz, American Music, Music As A World Phenomenon, Asian Music and African Music. Dr. Kalil will be helping us understand the loss of P.P. Bliss and his important contributions to gospel music.

I am very happy to welcome them all to our team!

In other news, I have been told we will have the model Ashtabula bridge in North Bloomfield by next Wednesday. I know we have said this before, but this bridge build has taken poor Damian longer then he thought. He said it was the most difficult and complex bridge he has ever built and it just took more time then he thought it would. You can check out the latest photos of the bridge here.
http://www.engineeringtragedy.com/The_Model_Bridge.html

That's all to report for now!

Len Brown over and out!

Grants & Model Bridge Update

Hi Folks:

As we keep moving forward with our funding, we have some big milestone grant filings coming up this month. Next week we file for the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Media Makers Grant. Its a big one worth $800,000! This one grant would finish our funding requirements, so everyone keep us in your prayers and pray we get it.  It's a very competitive grant and they only fund 17% of the grant requests they get.  We are also filing for 15 other grants this month in hopes of hedging our bet, just in case we don't win the big NEH grant.

The model of our bridge we are shooting for the documentary is almost done. It has been a HUGE and complicated project for Damian at Mainline Bridges to complete and has taken him much longer then he expected. He has been working with Dr. Dario Gasparini, Ph.D. at Case Western Reserve University's engineering department on the design. He has also been studying the many plans and photos we sent him to build a bridge that's not only accurate to the real bridge, but will also look real on camera.

I have been getting photos from Damian over the building process and have been posting them on our website here: http://www.engineeringtragedy.com/The_Model_Bridge.html so check them out. The latest ones are on the bottom of the page.

Hopefully in the next few weeks the bridge will be shipped to us and we can then finish building our outdoor set.

We also have some new team members I need to tell you about, but that will have to wait till my next blog. I have to finish these grants and get them in. :-)

Take Care!

Len Brown

New Team Member Added

Francesca C. Tronetti

Francesca Tronetti is the daughter of Dr. Caillean M. McMahon and is the curator of the Women in Technology - 19th Century Project. She oversaw the restoration of Office N in the main office of the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pa. She developed the conception of the re-creation of Office JS on the Lake Shore Museum grounds as well. She is a Cultural Anthropologist with a Batchelor's in Anthropology from Edinboro University, a Masters in Cultural Anthropology and Women's Studies from Brandeis University and is currently a Doctoral Student at California Institute of Integral Studies. She is fluent in Mores code, 19th century telegraph operations and equipment. She will also be helping with the set-up of the telegraph equipment and operations during filming.

Newly Discovered Charater!

Charles B. Leek

WHAT A GREAT DISCOVERY! Thanks to the research of team member David Tobias, a new and very important character to the film has been found. Many heroes emerged as a result of the Ashtabula train disaster and one of those heroes was Charles B. Leek, assistant telegraph operator who stayed at his post with John Manning for 50 hours straight with no break. We first thought that John Manning (head telegraph operator) was the only telegraph operator working the night of the disaster and the days after. It turns out this was not true! John Manning had help.

Here is the story of Charles B. Leek as published in a 1900's book, History of the LS & MS Railroad,
pages 325-327.

"Charles B. Leek, whose portrait, executed from a recent photograph appears on the opposite page, is probably the first colored gentleman to rise to as high a position as chief operator on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, being located at Ashtabula, Ohio. It was only after the hardest kind of work that this was accomplished, for his color made it all up-hill work, but by meritorious effort and strict attention to business, he won the good will and respect of his employers and fellow employees, and today their is none who is held in higher esteem.
     Mr. Leek was born in Peacedale, Rhode Island, and was three years of age when his father, J L. Leek, brought him to Ashtabula, Ohio. J.L. Leek was born in slavery, near Richmond, Virginia, and having a kind master he was freed at the age of twenty-one years, after which he drifted to the state of Rhode Island. There he married Miss E. Rodman, and they had three children. Upon removing to Ashtabula, Ohio, Mr. Leek conducted a restaurant for a period of forty years, dying in 1899, and leaving Charles B. administrator of the estate.
     Charles B. Leek began his railroad career on May 18, 1869, (at the age of 19) as a student of John P. Manning (who was then chief operator at Ashtabula), and was an apt pupil, learning telegraphy in the remarkable period of five weeks, which is the record, so far as is known. He was first assigned to Saybrook, Ohio, where he worked nights for one year. He then went on the extra list, working three months at Geneva, Ohio, and then a short time at Perry, Nottingham, Dock Junction, Girard, and Conneaut, Ohio. He then worked at Kingsville, Ohio eight months, when he returned to Ashtabula as night operator, continuing as such for one year.  He was then promoted to be first assistant of John P. Manning, chief operator, and served as such until he succeeded Mr. Manning, when the latter was promoted to be railway agent at Ashtabula Harbor.  He also served as assistant to Mr. Manning at the time of the great disaster at Ashtabula, and worked for fifty hours with out sleep or rest, he had charge of the large force of operators when his supervisor was absent. During the seven days' excitement after the accident, the total receipts of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Ashtabula were $700.  At the present time, our subject has two operators under  him P. Seipel, day operator; and Thomas Burke, night operator.  His work is on the end of the Eastern Division, east of Cleveland.  He has ever been faithful in the performance of his duty, and during his thirty years of service he has never brought upon the company a cent of expense through mistakes or accidents.  He is also an accomplished musician, giving lessons on the violin, and is director of Leek's orchestra of ten pieces, he playing first violin.
     Mr. Leek formed a matrimonial alliance with Ida A. Good, who is of white parentage, and they have three children Clarence E. Leek, who works in the Western Union Telegraph Company's office at Ashtabula, Edna L. Leek, and Elizabeth Leek, both of whom are in attendance at school."

The above is a direct quote from the book.

Doing further research, I was able to find another photo of Mr. Charles Leek, who also played with the Commonwealth Minstrels in 1878 (see photos below.) Here he is holding a horn of some kind, so it seems he played more then the violin. I then tracked the photo down and bought it for the historical society. I'll be delivering it the next time I am in the area. :-)

Charles B. Leek is buried in the Chestnut Grove Cemetery. The below photo was taken by team member Dr. Caillean M. McMahon.

I think it would be great if someone found the time to do more research on Charles Leek and his family to see if he still has descendants in the Ashtabula County.

Len Brown
Producer/Director

Grant Updates For Film Funding

A very special thanks to the Ashtabula Foundation for their $10,000 grant pledge towards the filming project! We also received a very nice $500 dollar donation from the Kinsman Historical Society. It is so nice to have so much support for this project coming from Northeast, Ohio.

We still have a number of grants filed we have not heard back from yet. With some organizations the process can sometimes take 6-8 months before we get a response. We did file grants with seven other foundations, but did not win those. Its a very competitive process and we know this going in. However we are not discouraged. 

We are currently are waiting responses from the following:
Tom E. Dailey Foundation
Ashtabula Community Development Fund
America Honda Foundation

We are always on the lookout for more grants and are filling out applications to file in August for the following grants:
CSX Foundation
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation
Cinereach
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
American Society of CIvil Engineers
IEEE Foundation
National Endowment for the Humanities
Northrop Grumman Foundation
Jim & Vanita Oelschlager Foundation
The Harnisch Foundation
The Global Film Initiative
GAR Foundation

We will also be launching a corporate funding campaign with incentives for corporations to donate to the project. I hope to have this finished in the next few weeks and then start going after these. Funding a film is a long hard road, but we have done it before. Some just take longer then others. :-)

Stay tuned for more updates.

Len Brown

New Team Member

Dr. Caillean M. McMahon, DO:  Telegraph Expert & Historian
She is the granddaughter of Sidney Kennedy, a telegrapher on the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1915 to 1962. She learned her first Morse letters, DF, from her grandfather when she was ten and has been a student of railroad telegraphic history since then.

Dr. C. M. McMahn holds a BS from Gannon University, a DO from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, a fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry from Temple University and a visiting fellowship from Duke University.

Telegraph operations has been a part of her family for generations and still is one of Dr. McMahan’s passions. In her spare time, she continues to read and research railroad telegraphy, ultimately putting her knowledge to use re-creating a commercial telegraph office of the 1890’s as part of the Central House restoration in Palenville, NY; a railroad telegraph office of 1905 at Lake Shore Railway Museum main station office in Norther East, PA; and most recently, a recreation of Office JS of the Pennsylvania Railroad, also on the Lake Shore Museum grounds, that accurately represents an office of the lake 1880’s - early 1990’s. She is currently restoring equipment for a proposed telegraph office at the old Grand Truck Railway station in Island Pond, VT. In all of these efforts, original equipment appropriate to the era involved was restored by her or under her direction to working order. Authentic paperwork was reproduced or recreated, authentic cloth insulated wiring was used, even correct voltages are used on the line between JS and Office N on the Lake Shore Railway Museum grounds. Dr. McMahn is also a member of the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society and the Reading Company Technical and Historical Society. In addition, both she and her daughter know American Morse and can read code from sounders. Dr. McMahn will be helping us recreate historically accurate telegraph operations during the filming of Engineering Tragedy: The Ashtabula Train Disaster.