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Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2020 09:08:12 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Erie Eng 326, the Henry Hobbs, by John Ott
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There is a very talented commercial artist, John Ott by name, who delights in using modern graphics software to render very old locomotives. He posts his pieces to a Facebook page named **Pre-1895 Railroads & Steam Locomotives.**






Yesterday Mr. Ott posted his illustration of Erie Eng 326, named the Henry Hobbs. That image is attached and his narrative herebelow ye traileth.






If John Ott ever publishes all the illustrations he has done in book form, it will be a Hum-Dinger.






Mr. TImko, you keepin' No. 1 on-the-advertised ... ?






-- abram burnett,


from the Amish Precinct of the Pennsylvania Dominion


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~















John Ott‎
Pre-1895 Railroads & Steam Engines

Visual Storyteller · Yesterday ·











Tim Muir kindly shared a print of the locomotive "Henry Hobbs" a while back. Since I had the specification sheet (due to the kindness of a historian friend), I thought it would be fun to see it in color. Henry Hobbs was the superintendent of the Erie RR's eastern division and, being a Very Important Railway Official, wanted the same thing every other Very Important Railway Official of the 1860s ha
d—a flashy passenger locomotive named after him. The Erie #326 "Henry Hobbs" was part of a large order of six-foot-gauge engines built by the Rogers Locomotive Works of Paterson, NJ, which was also Hobbs home town and headquarters. The engine left the factory in May, 1866, and I can imagine that it successfully enhanced Hobbs' bragging rights.

The "Hobbs" was painted in rich Paris green, an expensive (and extremely poisonous) pigment. The green engine frames had a wide red stripe bordered with thin white stripes. The dome bases were striped with red and white also. The top of the sandbox was vermilion with gilt ornaments on the fluting. The wheels were vermilion with black and gold stripes. There was gold leaf on the ends of the axles and on the headlight bracket. The nameplate on the cab and the number plate on the boiler were made of German (nickel) silver. The check valve was German silver also, with a brass cap. The cylinders, steam chests, pumps and piping, boiler bands, and domes were covered in brass. The boiler was jacketed in Russia iron. The pilot, springs, and running gear were bright polished iron. The bolt heads were polished too. The cab was walnut with gilt striping and oil-painted flowers on the window posts. The tender had a oil landscape (likely the Great Falls of the Passaic) painted in the center surrounded by a gold scroll and decorative vinework. The tender frame and trucks had more red and white striping. Henry Hobbs' photo portrait was mounted in a brass medallion between the drivers. There were more landscapes painted on the sides of the headlight.

This engine was intended to turn other railroad officials their own shade of green, and I'm sure it did just that for a while. But the age of extravagant locomotive painting was coming to an end. Henry Hobbs retired or moved on. When the #326 was rebuilt and repainted in June, 1872, the name and fancy ornaments were removed and the engine emerged from the paint shop in a uniform shade of dark umber with black wheels and just a little insignificant gold striping. Oh, well—sic transit Gloria mundi, and who's going to clean up the bus?













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