In Memory of - Richard Ulin

[cpthistle]

I bring to you, with heavy heart, that Richard Ulin of Colorado is no longer with us. He passed away late last week. Richard was a master builder of live steam locomotives. His 2.5" scale steam engines are know across the country, around the world. Richard was a member of the Colorado Live Steamers, and was out running #7 Climax until the last month he was with us. Richard is shown in may videos on Youtube, including his last locomotive, #7 Climax if you would like to see his work (search Richard Ulin, or Colorado Live Steamers)
If you have any stories about running with Richard, this would be a nice place to share them, and I know our club members would love to read them.

[NP317]

Sad to hear.
I had the pleasure of meeting him once, and seeing his large Shay.

The steam drifts skyward...
RussN

[gwerhart0800]

I met Rich Ulin (and Linda) when I joined the Colorado Live Steamers. I was in awe of his WSL #13, the C&S #70 and the WSL/C&S cars that he built. He was a great source of how-to information that helped me get my Mich-Cal Shay running again as well as input on construction issues as I continue to work on a Fitchburg Northern. As with Chris (who started this thread), I now own one of Rich's engines, a 3 3/4" scale Plymouth engine that he built about 8 years ago. I will remember him every time I run it. The attached photo was taken at the CLS September meet this year and was the last time he ran at the track.

Rich and Linda traveled far and wide, running on tracks around the country. If you have a photo of Rich, please post it.

[Berkman]

Is there a list of all the different locomotives he built/designed?

I've heard his name a lot, but other than the climax, k27 etc, wasn't sure what else he's built over the years.

[Pontiacguy1]

His first in 2 1/2" scale that I ever saw was a beautiful Denver and South Park 2-6-6 Mason Bogie that he built and also sold castings for. It was very well detailed, heavy, and a good puller. He used to run it down at the C&IG fall meets a lot of the time.

He told me that he used to model in 1 1/2" scale. Said he had a 2-6-6-2 in that scale and a bunch of cars and stuff. Said that once he discovered 2 1/2" narrow gauge on 7 1/2" track, he sold all his 1/8th scale stuff and started building exclusively narrow gauge stuff.

Who owns Richard's patterns and drawing rights now? I know that he sold them to someone a couple of years ago.

[Mountaineer]

Alcowest bought most of Richard’s drawings and patterns for his 2.5” scale designs. Not sure if they also bought the design for the Climax?

In addition, they have the patterns and drawings for Tom Miller’s K-36

Enjoyed talking with Richard, smart, very productive, decent man.

Mountaineer

[Berkman]

Glad that his designs and patterns went to someone that will keep them commercially available unlike some casting suppliers, like Klamath Loco works.

[cpthistle]

Yes, as far as I know Alcowest has all of Richards patterns. This included the boogie, shay, k-27 the C&S 2-8-0 and I believe the 'critter'. The Climax is something he built after he sold the patterns, one of a kind. I got to chat with him a few weeks ago, and evidently he started with a Little Engines American locomotive.
EDIT:(K-28 corrected to K-27)

[Berkman]

Did he design a K27 in addition to a k28?

[Harlock]

Richard was an interesting guy. For a long time he had an artist - patron relationship with my friend Ron Schmidt. Over the years he built Ron a K-27, West Side #15 Shay, two extremely finely detailed D&RG coach cars, and more. Of all the things he built I'd say the coach and combine cars were the finest. Ron - being a very fine machinist and builder himself - was very particular about accuracy and detail and the two got along very well. Rich was very dedicated to cast detail in his models; if it was a casting in the original then he'd try to make it a casting on the model whenever possible, so his engines always had hundreds and hundreds of detail castings.

Rich was able to make it out to Bitter Creek to double head the #14 he built for himself and the #15 which by that time was owned by Bill Boller. Rich enjoyed it so much he did it again the following year. It was an impressive sight to see. I made a video of one of the visits and sent him a DVD, he liked it so much he sent me a beautiful full sized copy of the West Side #15 Lima builder's plate, which takes pride of place in the open lid of my machinist's tool chest.

Rich also offered the gorgeous South Park Mason Bogie locomotive, an example of which I got to see some years ago at Joshua Tree after it came west from Utah. The 2 1/2" scale beam engine ("critter") there are a few examples of out there, one of them is in my shop for a small overhaul. Rich also built an RGS 70 and the Climax among others.

Alco West (Bruno Platzer) does indeed now own the Ulin line of plans and castings and they can be had from him.

For starters, here are some pictures of Richard and his #70, double heading with Bill Boller's Bumblebee #268 in some of them.

[Harlock]

here's some photos from the Shay visits at Bitter Creek. He is double heading with Brian Ratliff running Bill's Shay in front. in the group photo is Bill Boller, a young Jeff Tolan and unidentified person in the foreground (may by Paul Lavacot.) The last photo is a night shoot I did with the two shays.

[Harlock]

Here's a selection of Ulin K-27 photos, that's me running it in the second image. I had sent a set of photos to Kozo for inspiration while he was designing his.