This is not off topic because it includes a reference to Greenfield Village.
I found a bunch of glass negatives and three pictures of RR engines made by the Mason Machine Works in Taunton MA in my dad's stuff.
They made steam engines from 1853 thru 1890.
Two operating Mason steam engines still exist. One is the renamed "William Mason" at the B&O Museum in Maryland built in 1856.
The other is the Torch Lake at Greenfield village that claims to be one of the oldest operating steam engines remaining.
Greenfield claims that the Torch Lake was made in 1873 but I am having trouble finding it in the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society records for 1873.
When I get time I'll look thru the glass negatives and see what I have.
Old stuff is fun! that includes me
More information here:
http://blog.thehenryford.org/2013/04/greenfield-villages-one-way-railroad/
That's it
The Mason archives lists it under Hecla mining
Fred I believe I know exactly where Mason Machine
was. A complex of sec.8 housing was built and
just recently they just leveled the whole thing.
Now the question I was led to believe my father
told me Ford wanted to build a plant their on the
Mason site, and the City of Taunton idiots
refused the offer. Do you know anything bout that?
This was in the 1920s and I guess Ford settled
for the Summerville plant instead.....
sam
Hi Sam,
I didn't know about the Ford proposal but knew that Grossman's used the facility as a lumber yard. It would have been a great location with easy access to an active rail yard.
I can remember going to different buildings to get wood for projects with my dad.
He would drive his car into a building with platforms running down each side that were about 4 ft high. He told me that there used to be tracks where we drove and that was where they built the steam engines.
I also remember the BIG fire where the main building burnt one night - I think it was the Mason office building that was being used as the Grossman's show room.
After being away from the area for about 30 years I couldn't believe what they had done in the name of "urban renewal"
We lost some beatiful-historic buildings to politics and places to live for --- (this space left blank do to political reasons) --
The current buildings are non inspiring boxes without character.