Newtown Author Toots His Horn

By Nancy K. Crevier

Charles Fulkerson barely remembers his father taking him to the railroad in Waterbury to watch the steam engines when he was three years old, but it was then, he has been told, that he first developed what would become a lifetime-consuming interest in the iron horses of the past.

“I’ve loved trains all of my life,” said Mr Fulkerson, who will be at the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot on Saturday, September 22, at 2:30 pm, for a book signing of The Great Steam Trains. Mr Fulkerson, a Newtown resident, is the author and illustrator of the book published in late 2006 by Parragon of Bath, England. It has been available at Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores since the early part of this year.

His father, a mechanical engineer and a graduate of MIT marveled at the steam engine, Mr Fulkerson said, and passed that love on to his son. Train watching was something that followed him through his boyhood into adulthood.

As a liberal arts student majoring in anthropology at Stanford University in California in the 1950s, he had the opportunity to wallow in train watching, practically at the university’s doorstep. “I spent a lot of time counting cars in the Southern Pacific,” he said of his college days.

He has built a detailed model train and painted the elaborate scenery and each of the many train cars that run along the tiny track, but it is watching working trains that brings him his greatest pleasure.

“A good time to me would be a bottle of wine, a folding chair, and a main line of trains to watch,” he said. He tries to get out at least once a month to watch trains, traveling to some of his favorite spots such as Horseshoe Bend in Pennsylvania. “I am not really interested in the commuter trains,” Mr Fulkerson said. “They are just buses on wheels. The freight trains are my passion and my favorite would be a steam engine on a freight train.”

Finding a steam engine today at the head of a train is not too common, though. The majority of the steam engines that helped shape the economy of the fledgling United States in the late 1800s have long since been displaced by diesel powered engines.

“Around the time of World War II the diesel came into favor. Diesel engines were more efficient. It wasn’t a question of power or speed. There was a huge labor savings to switch to diesel engines,” Mr Fulkerson explained. “Steam engines had to stop for water and coal, and they had to be cleaned frequently. There is very little maintenance with diesel engines.”

Steam engines were generally unique, said Mr Fulkerson, in that many parts were made specifically for one engine. This meant parts that wore out had to be crafted again for that particular engine. “There were minor to major variations and that made the steam engine harder to maintain. The diesel was easier and more cost effective to use,” he said.

Still, Mr Fulkerson said that he and hundreds of other steam engine aficionados appreciate the beauty and power of the huge engines that first brought settlers to the western sections of the United States and then carried the bounty produced in the plains states to points all over the country.

“The steam engine could take anything, anywhere, at anytime. It had a huge impact on the economy of the United States,” Mr Fulkerson. In The Great Steam Trains, as well as in Steam Trains, a smaller companion book also written by Mr Fulkerson, he hopes to share his enthusiasm of the beauty and history of the great trains. As promotion copy chief at Reader’s Digest in Pleasantville, N.Y., technical writing takes up the bulk of his time, but Mr Fulkerson is an experienced journalist as well, and in The Great Steam Trains he has strived, he said, to “write eloquent text” to accompany the impressive photography of book collaborator Fredric Winkowski.

“It was through mutual friends that I met Fred Winkowski,” said Mr Fulkerson. “He is the author of several books of a mechanical nature and is a great photographer. He was looking for a writer for this book on trains and so we decided to collaborate.”

 Not only Mr Fulkerson’s skills as a writer are highlighted in the coffee table book, but also his talents as a painter. Over the years, paintings and illustrations by Mr Fulkerson have appeared in books, magazines, calendars, and numerous first day covers for the Postal Commemorative Society.

Interspersed with the glossy photographs of steam trains, train yards, and train stations in The Great Steam Trains are paintings by the author. The Polar Express, an actual steam train housed in Michigan, The Daylight, an art deco skirted steam engine, and The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad all fall under the spell of Mr Fulkerson’s paintbrush. Mainly a watercolorist, Mr Fulkerson turned to a gouache-consistency acrylic technique painted on board for the paintings of the great trains.

“There is better control of the value of the color, and especially for the art-deco Daylight, that was important,” he said.

“The Daylight is probably the most beautiful engine in the world,” said Mr Fulkerson. A relic of the Depression era, The Daylight still runs today in Portland, Ore., as a tourist attraction. The engine toured the United States in the Bicentennial year of the United States. “It was restored and painted red, white, and blue. It toured as The Freedom Train,” Mr Fulkerson recalled.

An encapsulated history of the steam train in the introduction of the book engages readers of The Great Steam Train, followed by pages that offer glimpses into the lives of those who worked and traveled aboard the trains in their heyday. Fact and folklore weave a tale of trains all over the United States, some of which have been restored to their former glory through the generosity of volunteers and contributors. One such train, and a favorite of Mr Fulkerson’s, is the EBT in Pennsylvania that was shut down in the mid-1950s and subsequently revived by a scrap dealer who turned out to be a rail fan. It is just one of many stories that roll down the pages as smoothly as a train on the track.

The book is the effort of many late nights and travels to train museums all over the country during 2005 and 2006. From Steamtown National Park in Scranton, Penn., to Wausau, Mich., to see The Polar Express, to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, he meticulously researched the mighty engines and their history.

The book he has written is purposely not technical, he said, in order that the general public might come to appreciate the majesty of the steam trains.

“It was just a serendipitous encounter that has allowed me to share my love of steam trains,” he said. He looks forward to greeting other steam train fans and others who appreciate fine photography and writing at the September 22 signing.