I had the pleasure of knowing Don Speidel, who was an early member. I believe his TCA number was 5-94 (the first couple of years they did not include the first digit of the year, so he was the 94th member and joined in 1955). He was a young man in his late 20s when he joined the TCA and I believe he was the TCA president in or around 1970.
He was a real train engineer for the NYC and told me one of his jobs was running the old T-electric type engines down to the scrapyard, when the NYC scrapped them. He told stories about meeting some of the west coast TCA members and riding in one of the member's private rail cars out to the west coast.
He was quite a character and was very knowledgeable about Prewar American Flyer. He and the late Lou Redman made a video for the TCA, discussing early prewar Flyer. I believe the video was sold at a TCA convention in Pittsburgh in the late 90s? or early 2000s.
Some of his stories would horrify collectors today. I recall how he told me that he and friends would go out buying trains in the 50s and 60s and when they got home they would burn the original boxes in their backyards, as they did not want to store the boxes.
My favorite story of his, was that Don liked to tell the tale of his birth. He was born in September 1929, just before the stock market crashed, bringing on the Great Depression. He said that his father liked to refer to him to friends as "his own little depression" due to his birth being so close to the stock market crash.
I last saw Don at October York in 2015. Sadly, Don had a stroke in early 2016 and passed away a year or two later.
NWL
