Earl Hackett has lived on the East
Coast except for a few years in
the Air Force. When he was an
infant we lived a few blocks from
the mainline Baltimore & Ohio sta-
tion in Wilmington, DE, long ago
torn down. Approaching the
station from the south there is a
steep grade. When the steam
engines hit that grade they would
often slip. Earl said, “When my
mom heard the slipping she’d toss me in the buggy and
run down to the station. We’d get there just in time to
see the smoke belching monster come roaring through.
This scared the daylights out of me, however, I have had
a love for all things steam powered ever since.”
Earl a retired DuPont chemist and very loosely models
the Chesapeake & Ohio from Ronceverte to Allegheny
summit in October, 1952. He scratchbuilds almost every-
thing and is constantly experimenting with different mate-
rials and techniques, so the going is pretty slow. He has
a collection of metal and wood working machines and to
him it’s more about the journey than the destination.
