Steam & Excursion > Henry Sorensen Passes... A Loss to the Steam Fraternity

I was sorry to hear of Henry's passing last week when I got a call from a mutual friend.
Henry was truly one of a kind. His passion for all things steam was simply amazing. Henry did a wonderful job of preserving some very interesting pieces of railroad logging history over the years. Henry can be credited with saving 2 former logging engines from the woods where they had been abaondoned. Henry restored one himself and passed the other one on to Scott Wickert who is working to restore that one.
It was wonderful to see Henry at Railfair 99' with his 2 steamers operating for all the crowds. Henry even let me run one of them one day which I told him at the time was quite a compliment.
I will miss visiting Henry on my trips through the Redwoods.
I'm sure Henry is once again in the tall trees with his hand on the throttle!
Henry, you will be missed.

Martin

Wow. Sorry to hear of this.

I only met Henry a couple times during the years I lived behind the Redwood Curtain and was involved with the then-Northern Counties Logging Interpretive Association. He'd show up from time to time during the steam ups at Fort Humboldt and was always full of stories about his life on the Hammond railroad and then running Allied army supply trains through western Europe. The major forest fire that destroyed many trestles on the Hammond railroad during the war cost him his railroad job upon his return, and he went into other pursuits for a living but kept his railroading interests alive through his locomotives.

Quite a loss for the North Coast logging community.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Jeff,

Yes, those fires did cost Henry his return to the throttle. Who knows what would have happened had the fire not hit.
Here is a shot of when Henry was running the #17 on the Klamath & Hoppow Valley and she jumped the track. Henry took it all in stride.

Martin

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Martin, Do you know the names of any of the guys in the Klamath & Hoppow Valley photo of #17? My father and his friends spent a lot of time there during those years. That looks like it could possibly be him up on the front end by the lead coupler. I've got movies of him playing around and running and switching the #17 during that time. Talk about switchbacks! Hope you can help. Thanx.........Pat