Bob Richardson and Tweetsie

I would like to add yet another side to the many facets that was Bob. He visited the ET&WNC in 1936, and again in 1942 when he was in the Army. His photos have been published many times. He told me of his adventures there, and like others have said, it was like it was yesterday to him.
He came to the ET&WNC RR Historical Society Convention in 1993 (he was a long time member of that organization). People swarmed around him all weekend, but I was in charge of the convention, and had plenty to do, so I kept my distance for I did not want to burden him with yet another person to talk to. Curtis Brookshire had worked with him in Colorado, and sort of kept him company all weekend. Sort of honor guard military escort.
Anyway, we finished up the convention tramping around the Cranberry Mine area, which he had not seen since 1942, but had a wonderful time. Then everyone headed for home. Bob turned to Curtis and I and said "Well lets go back to Boone and get something to eat." The three of us and Tony Koester enjoyed a good meal at Shoneys while Bob told us yet again of his trips to TN. He turned to me and spoke very highly of how we did our conventions and told me to keep it up.
Didn't see him again until last August in Durango. He came to my clinic on the ET&WNC, though I did not see him, for he came in after the lights were turned down. As part of my disucssion on passenger cars, I told a Bob Richardson story, A Good Bob Richardson Story, not knowing he was there. He came up afterward, and told me more details about the story I had told, and seemed to enjoy the situation.
On Saturday of the Convention, in the middle of the vendor area, Bob was walking through, with several people in tow. He stopped me (for I wasn't going to bother him- he was the great Bob, and he was in Colorado) and we talked a good 20 minutes more on the Tweetsie. He obviously had a great place in his heart for that railroad, and the fact that part of it survives. I do know that he had been a paying member of the Society for years, and I have no idea of how many groups he retained membership in. He told me personal stories about the ride he took in 1936, that he had obviously told Archie Robertson at some point, for they were in the book Slow Train to Yesterday. Down to the detail. He also answered the question of why there were so few photos from that trip. He said the guy who developed his film/pictures was having a romp with his girlfriend while the film was working, and he ruined most of them. Remember now that those pictures had been taken almost exactly 70 years ago. But yet he remembered what happened to that roll of film. Incredible.
I valued that time with him, for he stopped me, not the other way around. Though now that I think about it, there wasn't anyone else in CO that day to talk about the Tweetsie with. LOL " />
So there is my Bob Richardson story.
One question I never asked him was one my mother wanted me to ask him. My mother's maiden name was Richardson. She always wanted to know if we were related. (You can never convince your mom that some people don't know all their relatives back ten generations).
I have been told that Bob never married, and didn't have a lot of family. Guess he gave his life to the narrow gauge instead of a wife. Better for us. Hopefully we can find some way to express our love for the man, even if we can't all go to a memorial service.
Several good suggestions have been made about appropriate memorials to the man. All of them should be done. But I would like to suggest a couple myself.
There needs to be a slot in the cabs of the 346, the 20, and even the 318 with a photo of Bob in his prime. Make it out of paper like a cab card if you have to, and make plenty of copies for generations to come.
That way everyone who ever climbs up into the cab of those locomotives will be able to see the man who saved, or had anything to do with the saving of those engines. That way Bob can be in the cab of his engines from now on.
Just my opinion.
Johnny graybeal