Steam & Excursion > I Lost A Good Friend-We All Lost A Logging Historian!

I got the sad news earlier this week that my old friend John Cummings had just passed away. For anyone who is a fan of Western logging railroads John's name is very well known.

John Worked in his early years at the West Side Lumber Co. in Tuolumne, CA. It was there that John got his real love for all aspects of steam logging and logging railroads. John took his camera into the woods at not only the West Side but at Pickering, Diamond & Caldor and dozens of other steam logging lines.

The first photo is a self portrait John took of himself in the cab of West Side Shay #15 in February 1942. The second photo shows John (on the right) being presented the "Dean Of The Woods Award" at the 2012 Northwest Logging Congress at Camp 18, Oregon. The last photo was taken by John in 1951 in the early morning at Camp 8 on the West Side with Shay #8 coming through Camp with her first load of logs of the day. John was working at Camp 8 at the time.

John went on to be one of the driving forces behind the model company Northwest Shortline in the 1950's through 1980's. John started the first importing from Korea while at NWSL when he helped start Far East Distributor's as a branch of NWSL. John would tell how he came to hire Korean "girls of the night" to work days in assembling the wooden logging camp cars under the name "Kimchie Models".

John was a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of NW Logging railroads. He and I collaborated and co-authored several articles for Timber Times Magazine over the years. John was always open to share his vast collection of materials and photos with anyone who share hi interest in this part of railroad history.

John lived a full life and was still active right up to end. Just 2 weeks before he passed John helped another author finish a DVD on the Santa Cruz Lumber Co. near Santa Cruz, CA using many of the photos that John took of the operation in the 1940's.

Just a couple years ago, John let me acquire his old folding box camera that he took many of his photos with, including photos of the Diamond & Caldor railroad that he was very proud of.

John was a fine man and true friend. He will be missed.


Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/14 10:18 by LoggerHogger.

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So sorry for your loss. The generation that ran and remembered true steam is slowing leaving us. May he rest in peace. Our thoughts and prayers to his family.

It"s sad to lose friends like that. It's also one of the problems of growing old: you out live all your friends making life lonelier.

Sorry to hear that news, Martin. I will second what the other guys have said.

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts of a good friend with us may he rest in peace.