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- The Capital Times, September 3, 2007
- by Stacy Vogel of The Janesville Gazette
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For Charlie Hendrickson, caring for the Rock River Cannon Ball is more than a hobby.
It's a calling.
"I don't do this as a hobby; I do this to preserve it for future generations to see," he said.
Like Hendrickson, the steam locomotive at the Rock River Thresheree bears witness to more than 40 years of thresheree history. The engine stands as one of about 300 operating steam locomotives in the country, he said.
Hendrickson, 44, lives on the thresheree grounds at U.S. 51 and County M as caretaker and serves as the organization's vice president, but the steam locomotive is his baby. He considers it the star of the show, though he admits he might be biased.
"There's not too many people who don't ride the train before they go home," he said.
But before the Rock River Cannon Ball was entertaining 25,000 visitors a year at the annual thresheree, it was a 1943 Henschel steam locomotive working in a German shipyard.
Then in 1964, Walter Durst, founder of Durst Manufacturing and an early member of the thresheree, was looking for something to make the event pop.
"He said what we need here is a train," Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson was just a baby when Durst bought the train for $2,500 - a large sum in those days - and paid $750 to have it shipped to America. His mom was Durst's bookkeeper, and they lived in the same neighborhood.
Hendrickson grew up with the locomotive and was fascinated by it from the very beginning, he said. Durst encouraged Hendrickson's passion, letting him be a fireman on the train at age 8 and teaching him how to engineer it.
Durst died 15 years ago. Today, Hendrickson engineers the train. And just as Durst passed his knowledge of steam engines on to Hendrickson, today Hendrickson passes it on to his son, Clayton.
The activity draws the family together, Dawn said.
"The antique part of it, and the history behind it, and just thinking about what it used to do in its time is pretty cool," she said. "I think the families were closer then and did more things together, and that's kind of what I like our family to do."
The 15-year-old has shown a passion for steam engines and often serves as fireman when Hendrickson runs the train. Clayton and Hendrickson's wife, Dawn, help him with the "constant work" required to maintain and operate the locomotive.
