former (late) live steam parts supplier

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blff cty lcmtv wrks
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former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by blff cty lcmtv wrks »

a friend and me were having a conversation this morning and we were trying to come up with the name of a former supplier of live steam stuff. neither one of us could come up with a name. so here goes. there was this guy who had a shop in missouri. he made the live steam meets. i regularly ran into him at the midsouth meets in columbia, tn. his wife always had freshly made hot popcorn. he met a sudden and untimely end. he blew himself up trying to make fireworks or gunpowder or something like that. reckon, does anybody know who i am talking about? any help would be greatly appreciated.
Marty_Knox
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Marty_Knox »

Fred and Joan Ellis, Power Model Supply. Fred was a real character! He made some great stuff, including a true reflex sight glass. He took over the line of narrow gauge castings from CA Street and Sons. He also dealt in fireworks - their building caught on fire and he ran back into the shop.
Pontiacguy1
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

Yep, was going to say Fred Ellis. Power Model Supply, but Marty beat me to it.

He had some really nice stuff. He had castings to build quite a few different locomotives, including: Marie Estelle 0-4-0. the Lucky-7 series of 2-4-4 tank locomotives, the narrow Gauge C-19 2-8-0, and at least two or three others that I have forgotten about. He also had castings for a lot of stationary engines, hit-n-miss engines, etc... That was a big loss to the hobby. A few of his castings and patterns were recovered and have been saved, like some of the pump castings. I also heard that most of the C-19 castings got saved, then sold on E-bay. Someone bought them and they have never been seen or heard from again. Most everything else was just lost in the explosion and fire.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but here is the way I heard it told to me: He had big building where he kept his castings, supplies, and some of the patterns for Power Model Supply. In that building he also kept fireworks that they would set up and sell during 4th of July and New Years. The building caught on fire, and he and Joan got out. Fred then ran back inside to try to get their dog out, and the whole building blew up. Said there was literally a crater left with a lot of ash and stuff. I know a couple of people that went down there and rummaged through the rubble. Said Joan was selling whatever you could fit in a 5-gallon bucket for like $20 or something like that. My memory is fading, but it was something like that. That's how some of the patterns got saved.

Sad story.
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gwrdriver
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by gwrdriver »

The former owner and founder of PMS (before Fred) Bob Paule (now deceased also) told me that the pyrotechnic components were stored separately as simple combustibles to be combined to make explosives. The problem was that Fred stored some of them in open drums in a basement and somehow a small fire started and quickly got out of control. He knew it was going to blow but ran back into the building and downstairs, for something, maybe the dog, and it all went up.
GWRdriver
Nashville TN
blff cty lcmtv wrks
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by blff cty lcmtv wrks »

thanks for all the replies. andy and i were talking about him this morning, but neither of us could think of his name. it's been bugging me all day. i figured if any body knew who he was, it would be the folks who hang out on this group. thanks, again.
Rich_Carlstedt
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Rich_Carlstedt »

Power Models also did the Falk Castings created by Bill Harris
My Friend Tom had started building the Falk when that accident happened, so Tom made the patterns and
poured the home made castings in my backyard. Set him back about a year..
Frank6276
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Frank6276 »

While we are walking down memory lane, I have a question. What became of Ken Seymour and his company Superpower Detail? Ken had some great 1 1/2" scale detail parts, as a matter of fact I am just finishing up two of his Nathan DV 7 lubricaters, nice castings!
Frank
blff cty lcmtv wrks
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by blff cty lcmtv wrks »

there will never be another supplier like the late Gene Allen.. i once called him at 7:30 memphis time. i didn't even think about the time difference in california. his wife answered the phone and said he was asleep. my smart mouth comment was, i guess he is sleeping late. she nicely told my the time there was 5:30a. i profusely apologized. she said to hang on she would go get him, said he needed to get up anyway. i bought a lot more than i really needed that day.
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Greg_Lewis »

blff cty lcmtv wrks wrote: Sun May 08, 2022 9:44 pm there will never be another supplier like the late Gene Allen.. i once called him at 7:30 memphis time. i didn't even think about the time difference in california. his wife answered the phone and said he was asleep. my smart mouth comment was, i guess he is sleeping late. she nicely told my the time there was 5:30a. i profusely apologized. she said to hang on she would go get him, said he needed to get up anyway. i bought a lot more than i really needed that day.

He was a true gentleman. I had the honor of visiting his home shop and having several conversations with him at other times and his wisdom and integrity will never be exceeded.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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NP317
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by NP317 »

And I was also honored to speak with Gene on the phone several times.
He was as others have described, and a hand-shake honest gentleman also. Very trusting.
I miss him.
RussN
Marty_Knox
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Marty_Knox »

Gene was a gem - I am proud to say he was my friend! Of all the things I've done I am proudest of the article I wrote about Gene. It was titled 'Gene Allen and his Mogul' and was in the May/June 2007 issue of Live Steam magazine. I am very glad Gene got to see it. The nest time I visited Gene his daughter thanked me and said she learned stuff about her Dad she hadn't known.
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Benjamin Maggi
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Re: former (late) live steam parts supplier

Post by Benjamin Maggi »

I talked with Gene on the phone a couple of times, but we mostly conversed with letters. I kept them all. He used an unusual type of paper and an old-school typewriter and the ink would start to wear/flake off the page, so I laminated all of his old letters to preserve them.
Last edited by Benjamin Maggi on Mon Aug 22, 2022 3:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"One cannot learn to swim without getting his feet wet." - Benjamin Maggi
- Building: 7.25" gauge "Sweet Pea" named "Catherine"
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