Re: Fred Springer Photo Collection online...

I am really glad that the public can now view the 14,000+ pictures Fred took all over the world. I have been waiting for them to become available. Fred gave the museum money to catalogue them and make them available. He did not want them stashed away never to see the light of day.

Fred was a officer for Mobile Oil and had very generous vacation time available to him. This allowed him to travel the world in search of railroads, particulary steam and if possible, narrow gauge steam. Fred's wife Dale, made all the trips with him. About the only thing she was not to fond of was riding atop the narrow gauge cars in South America behind steam in the mountains. Fred loved it, said there was nothing better than listening to the engines work hard amid all that mountain scenery.

In later years he moved from Texas to Santa Fe, NM to be close to his grandson. He bought annual passes on the C&TS for them both and rode many times during the year. He had a passion for the Goose in Delores and contributed money towards its rebuild and operation as he did for the C&TS #463. One time a fella in Antonito asked him if a "bunch of D&RGW papers he had could be of use" to Fred. Turned out they were copies of orders for years and Fred aquired them saying they were a treasure trove.

We would see each other at live steam meets during the year as we were members of Southwest Live Steamers. We ran into each other lots of times when I would vacation in the mountains. One such day we were riding the SL&RG up La Veta pass and I mentioned to him I never got tired of that sound (a steam engine barking hard up stiff grades). He grinned and said "I don't either".

Fred passed away a couple of years ago after fighting cancer for a couple of years and is buried in Sweetwater Tx just a stone's throw from the T&P mainline.

I got cheated, I only knew him for 30 years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2014 05:26PM by Tomstp.