OBITUARIES
Jerry Angier, a prominent New England-based railroad preservationist and author, primarily involving the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad (BAR), died June 19 at his home near Portland, Maine. He was 82. Born March 1, 1942, in Washington, D.C., Gilman “Jerry” Angier Jr., attended school in Providence, R.I., summered with his family in Hyannis Port, Mass., and earned a degree in speech and broadcasting from Boston’s Emerson College in 1966. After an initial stint in public broadcasting, he settled into a long career in the life insurance and financial planning profession, first in Cincinnati and later in Portland. Angier authored three books about the BAR, including Bangor & Aroostook, the Maine Railroad (Flying Yankee, 1986) with co-author Herb Cleaves; Bangor & Aroostook Railroad in Color (Morning Sun, 2004); and Bangor & Aroostook: The Life of a Maine Railroad Tradition, again with Cleaves
(Fleet Graphics, 2009). He also wrote articles on the BAR for both Trains and Classic Trains.
Anthony Haswell, founder of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, died Friday, May 17, in Tucson, Ariz., where he had retired many years ago. A lawyer by training, Haswell was born in Dayton, Ohio, on Jan. 30, 1931, went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1953, and graduated from UW law school in 1958. He displayed an early penchant for supporting various causes. One of them became the passenger train, hence his organization in 1967 of NARP, now known as the Rail Passengers Association. In its January 2000 turn-of-the-millennium special issue, Trains Magazine recognized Haswell among the century’s 10 leading figures in railroading, a group that included D.W. Brosnan, Al Perlman, and John W. Barriger III. “Every American who rides a train owes a debt to Haswell,” said Trains. “A pain to politicians, railroaders, and union leaders, he was the right man at the right time.”
Logan “Stan” Garner, rail enthusiast, actor, and supplier of railroad equipment to the entertainment industry, died
May 20 in Arizona at the age of 83. Born in Pasadena, Calif., Garner gained initial fame for being a co-founder in 1967 of Short Line Enterprises, where discarded railroad equipment, mostly from Hollywood movie studios, found a home. The company refurbished the locomotives and passenger and freight cars and made its reputation as an active supplier of its roster for movies, television, and commercial work. Garner also became an actor, usually playing a conductor or train crew member, in a variety of movies including Midnight Run, Back to the Future, Part III, City Slickers II, a remake of The Italian Job, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, the remake of True Grit, Flags of Our Fathers, and There Will Be Blood. Television work included the movie War and Remembrance, the Vietnam-era “China Beach,” “General Hospital,” “MacGyver,” “Quantum Leap,” and “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”
Clinton Jones, president of the family-owned Mineral Range Railroad based in Ishpeming, Mich., died at Marquette General Hospital in Marquette, Mich., on April 19, 2024. He was 79. Jones began his railroading career as an electrician helper at the Milwaukee Road shops in Milwaukee in the mid-1960s. Between 1978 and 1985, he was involved in the operation of the Chippewa River Railroad, Algoma Railroad, and Brillion & Forest Junction Railway. He also worked as a trainmaster in nearby Marquette in the late 1980s and early 1990s for Wisconsin Central. Greg Vreeland, president of the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad said, “Clint Jones was an old-school railroader whose lifelong dedication to the short line industry in the upper Midwest was unparalleled. I was inspired by his vast experience beginning in the 1960s.” The Mineral Range Railroad was featured in a June 2022 Trains feature, “Home, Home on the Mineral Range.”