BLS 1968 Membership Directory

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Brotherhood of Live Steamers directory, 1968.

The BLS 1968 Membership Directory was published in the spring of that year by William Fitt. An electronic copy of the entire directory is available (upon request) for active IBLS members.

Sections

Forward

This Directory of Live Steamers is the culmination of several years of work by several Live Steamers in an attempt to catalog the extent of interest and activity in this hobby.

In 1964 the work was begun by Harry Dixon (Pacific Coast Secretary of the BLS), Edgar Kruckeberg (Eastern Secretary of the BLS), Halsted Park, Jr., and Pershing G. Scott (publisher of the Live Steam Newsletter). Return-mail cards were distributed and the returns collected but the problems of tabulating and printing the information proved insurmountable.

In 1967 the cards were turned over to William C. Fitt (publisher of Live Steam Magazine) and requests for corrections and additions were made through Live Steam Magazine. The result you now have before you.

The 1200 or so names in this list probably represent about half of the Live Steamers in North America. For various and sundry reasons many asked to be excluded from the roster in addition to those who did not return the data cards.

Time and Turnpikes, of course, plague this sort of venture with deletions and address changes but every attempt has been made to insure accuracy of the information presented as of the Spring of 1968.

It is hoped that it will serve to broaden the realm of Live Steamers and to help persons with like interests to become acquainted.

About the Organization

The Brotherhood of Live Steamers was formed in 1932 by Charles A. "Carl" Purinton who sensed a need for introducing widely scattered Live Steamers or for placing someone with a problem in touch with someone who might have the answer.

The Brotherhood of Live Steamers is an informal organization with no officers. Carl Purinton served as volunteer secretary for bout thirty years and without his assistance, many would-be Live Steamers would have thrown up their hands in dismay.

As the years passed the task became increasingly demanding and Harry Dixon offered to act as Secretary to the fast-growing group of Live Steamers along the West Coast. Edgar Kruckeberg took over the chores from Carl and within the past year Austin F. Barr, jr., has assumed the Secretary's duties for the Mid-West and Jack Prest has taken over the Canadian records.

Directory Information

Sample page from Brotherhood of Live Steamers Directory, 1968.

The listings in this directory are listed first by state, then alphabetically by last name. With each name is a street or mailing address, city and zip code, area code and phone number if it was available.

Following across the page the reader will find the words "Yes" or "No" which indicates whether or not the Live Steamer listed can accept visits from others by appointment. If a "No" indication is given, please accept it as such for many of us are restricted by reasons of business or work hours, health circumstances or many other reasons. If you would like to contact any of these men, please do so by mail. Lack of a "Yes" or "No" after a name would indicate that that portion of he questionnaire was not filled in.

Below the "Yes" or "No" indication are listed the initials of the Live Steam clubs that he is connected with. It was impossible to indicate whether the membership was associate because of the space restrictions. Initials of the clubs will be easy to identify with the Club Directory listings in this book with the possible exceptions of the PLS - PLS-FS designations. PLS will indicate the Pennsylvania Live Steamers while PLS-F indicates the Pensacola Live Steamers in Florida.

The balance of the data in the listing indicates the scale in inches per fort (NG denotes Narrow Gauge), track gauge, number of engines and wheel arrangement, number of pieces of rolling stock and the track footage. Where more than one figure is shown for track footage, it applies to the gauge shown to the left of the same line. An asterisk (*) indicates "under construction".

Club Directory

(Updated to March 1, 1969)

Club Facility Locations

This section contains maps from several clubs of their tracks/facilities.

Advertisers

The last section of the directory contains advertisements from the following companies:

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