The Home Machinist!

If You havent heard. Long time Father of the Southern RR Steam program, and Southern Master Mech. & Engineer past away this past Thursday July 22.

He was a friend to all steamers, large and small and will be missed by those that knew him.

Here are a few links about him, for those who don't know or remember.

http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=7133

http://steamspecials.com/in-memoriam/bill-purdie/

I used to occasionally go on a Southern steam excursion and always wanted to walk up to Bill Purdie and just thank him and his crew for all they did to make mainline steam possible. I never really got that chance as there was always a lot of railfans around him and I used to think that he probably doesn’t need another one.

But I would eventually get my chance as Bill and I became good friends back when the Southern leased NKP 765 for their steam program. Bill, his wife Sara, and I spent many hours together and I learned a lot about steam from him. I was their house guest on more than one occasion and they were my house guest on a trip they made out west. We did a lot of fun things together and steam people out here on the west coast were anxious to meet and talk with him. I even talked him into being a guest speaker at an LALS meet when we completed our track expansion.

Bill was a true gentleman and I’ll always consider his friendship an honor.

Jim Kreider

Bill Purdie had recently retired from the railroad back in the 1980's, and he with wife Sara were taking a cross country vacation. While in Los Angeles, they stayed at Jim Kreider's house which is where I had the privilege of meeting them for the first time. No matter how hard were you were to look, it would be difficult to find two nicer people.

Believe it or not, Bill had never seen a full size Big Boy up close in person. During the week, Jim made arrangements for them to see the Big Boy on display at RLHS facility at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona. I went out to Pomona with Bill, Sara, and Jim. I recall climbing up into the Big Boy's cab with Bill and Sara.... Bill was impressed at the cab's size. Before leaving the cab, I remember asking Bill, "If you were to take this Big Boy into the Irondale (Birmingham, AL) shops to restore it to operation, how much would it cost?" His answer was.... "Got a million dollars you want to part with?"

LL

a friend sent me this about a visit Bill made to the Canton track.

http://www.csppry.org/photos_p15.html