September 9, 2022 — Richie King, President of the Tri-State Railway Historical Society, has graciously provided copies of communication regarding the sale of Rahway Valley RR No. 15 to F. Nelson Blount in 1956. Richie writes:
“Recently, I was given a pile of Rahway Valley Railroad paperwork and among the many files was the complete set of correspondence regarding the sale of No. 15 to F. Nelson Blount. It looks like Blount first called George A. Clark, President & General Manager of the Rahway Valley, about purchasing No. 15 in October 1956. After that, there’s a whole lot of back and forth as to whether Blount is indeed interested in the locomotive.
William S. Young, who had known Clark since he was a child, was a rather well-known railfan and railroad magazine publisher and became involved and tried to push the deal through. You’ll see Young’s correspondence back and forth with Clark, and Clark’s barbed comments about Blount.
Interestingly, the Strasburg Rail Road reached out to Clark trying to purchase No. 15 out from under Blount. Clark wouldn’t budge and Blount talked them out of it. Finally, in June 1959, No. 15 was shipped out. Evidently, the sale price of $2,500 (about $24,000 today) didn’t come through until several months after No. 15 arrived in Massachusetts.
In 1961, when the MS&N guys were working to get No. 15 operable, they reached out to Clark for information and paperwork. That correspondence is also attached.“
Many thanks to Richie! You can find these documents in the Railroad Documents section of our Archives, under Monadnock, Steamtown & Northern.
-Rick Kfoury
Steamtown Historical Collective 