In Memoriam

 The Ottaway locomotive community lost another wealth of knowledge on Friday, December 30, 2022 when Mike Hawkins passed away.

Mike was born June 18, 1941 in Hutchinson Kansas.  Mike attended Arlington State College and then finished his Business degree at K-State.  He worked for building material companies such as Midway Wholesales where he retired from in his work life.

When he was young, he worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad for a while in Burton Kansas where he learned about track laying.  That interest in railroading continued throughout his life.  He was an active member of several railroad organizations.  Due to this he was able to work on well-known locomotives like the Milwaukee Road 261 where he would help maintain it at the station while the main crews got some well needed rest.  He also was able to meet and know prominent people in railroading like the former manager of the Union Pacific Steam Crew, Steve Lee.

Along the way Mike lived in Topeka Kansas where he met up with Steve Cregut and the two of them shared an interest in large scale trains.  They obtained a couple of Ottaway locomotives and began the C & H railroad.  Yearning for more knowledge of Ottaway locomotives they met Harold Chance who was instrumental in the manufacturing of most of the Ottaway locomotives in existence.  Through him, Mike and Steve gained all kinds of Ottaway locomotive knowledge and history.

! was lucky enough to meet and get to know Mike when several years ago, while I was obtaining my steam boiler hobby license in Minnesota, I was looking for large scale steam operations closer to home and came upon the C&H railroad.  I contacted them expressing an interest and was answered by Mike and invited to come out.  On the second visit out, I believe, I was asked by Mike if I knew how to operate an injector.  I told him I did because that was one of the things I had learned in Steam School and is very important to operating a steam boiler locomotive.  He then allowed me to operate one of the locomotives while he sat behind and instructed me and from then on, I was hooked on these locomotives as well.  We have been able to obtain one and restore it and I was happy that Mike was able to see it in operation on the C&H before he passed.  A lot of it was made possible by knowledge learned from him.  Through Mike and Steve, I was able to meet Harold Chance and Steve Lee.

People always think, wow, I wish I had a tape recorder going when he was talking, and with Mike, it was true.  He was a great storyteller, and it was always interesting to listen to him talk about various Ottaway history and just railroading in general.  Mike and his vast knowledge will be greatly missed.  More importantly, he will be missed as a good friend. 

Below is a photo of Mike on Harold Chance's locomotive at Peppermint Park in Wichita, Kansas.  Click on the image for a larger version.