Edward A Lewis has died

[thebigham]

Edward A. Lewis, a veteran of the short line railroad industry and a well known author and photographer, has died. His railroad career spanned 45 years and included terms at Long Island RR, Arcade & Attica RR, Providence & Worcester RR, Strasburg RR and Lamoille Valley RR. He served as president of the Aberdeen & Rockfish RR from 1987 until his retirement in 2007. Ed was a well-respected leader in the short line railroad industry and authored several publications including “The American Shortline Railway Guide”, “The Road of Personal Service – A Centennial History” (co-authored with Jim Wrinn) and “Wellsville, Addison & Galeton Railroad – The Sole Leather Line”. His photos of short lines have appeared in many publications.

When I joined the railroad industry over thirty years ago Ed was "Mr. Short Line" and was one of the first to reach out and make me feel welcome. I felt honored to count him as a friend. He will be missed.

- Alan Maples

Ed's obituary is here:

http://www.thepilot.com/obituaries/edwa ... d1c91.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[BR&P]

Thanks for posting that. I had the pleasure of knowing Ed and found him to be friendly, knowledgeable and a true railroader. He made many contributions both to the industry, and to the hobby as well. RIP Ed.!

[Otto Vondrak]

I have several of his books and use them as references almost daily. He leaves behind some great contributions to the industry as well as the hobby.

-otto-

[Jeff Smith]

As many people may have known Mr. Lewis, I've changed this to "global" for a short period.

[charlie6017]

I never had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Lewis, but I greatly appreciate all the great work he did authoring his many
books. Such wonderful resources! I learned a great deal as a result of reading his work, as did so many others.

Charlie

[CVRA7]

I had the pleasure of meeting him down at the A&R back in 1991. 3 of us who were on active duty with the U S Army 1205th Railway Servcies Unit had the day off and we were exploring the local railways and stopped by the A&R. We went into the office to seek permission to go onto the property and were directed to Ed's office. I told him that I should have brought my copies of some books of his and we talked for awhile. He gave us run of the property and IIRC told us when the train was due back in but we couldn't stay that long. The fact that the 2 of us had worked part time on the Connecticut Central RR didn't hurt. We also talked about the Valley RR's #40 , which was a former A&R locomotive.
The visit was one of the best I ever had on a short line thanks to Ed's hospitality.