Horace Shaw

Horace P. Shaw and Brewster H. Shaw of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan built the Whysall Light Railway in the 1930's.

Brewster's son, Brewster H. Shaw Jr, is a retired NASA astronaut.

Early 1-1/2 inch scale

William C. Fitt wrote the following in Live Steam Magazine, March 1979:

Back in July 1937, your Editor-In-Chief (William C. Fitt) was bitten by the Live Steam Bug while running Horace Shaw's 1-1/2 inch scale Pacific in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and never fully recovered.

About a year later, Cliff Pettis, who is currently Vice President of the Southwestern Live Steamers, attended an Open House at Shaw's Whysall Light Railway and took the photos shown here, and was also infected by the smell of coal smoke and cylinder oil. That's Cliff's son, Hugh, sniffing coal smoke in one photo and sitting in the riding car behind Horace Shaw in the other. Cliff went on to form Texas Railways in Houston, Texas, in 1947 and his patterns and designs were sold later to Robert Miller of Miller Backyard Railroads and then to Bethlehem Pattern and Model Shop in Pennsylvania. To complete the circuit, they went back to Terry McGrath of the defunct Texas Railway Supply Inc and, as a result, some of these castings show up on just about every 1-1/2 inch scale track in the country.

Horace Shaw is still interested, although not active, in the Live Steam Hobby at his home in Bloomfield Hills...and many of us owe him a debt of gratitude for introducing us to the wonderful world of Live Steam!

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  Horace Shaw at the throttle on the Whysall Light Railway during an open house in 1938, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The young man seated behind the tender is Hugh Pettis, son of Cliff Pettis. Photo by Cliff Pettis.

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  Horace Shaw at the throttle, Hugh Pettis stands behind the front of the locomotive. Photo by Cliff Pettis.