Colorado Voices
A locomotive shop preserves its old ways
Clip | 5m 6sVideo has Closed Captions
Marlin Uhirch has been preserving the legacy and work of Uhrich Locomotives.
In Strasburg, Uhrich Locomotive Works has been around since 1948. Functioning originally as a steam locomotive shop, they've transformed to be more versatile in recent years. Marlin Uhirch took over the business from his father, Virgil Uhrich, in during the 1990s. He hopes to continue the practice and teach the younger generation this skills that are starting to disappear.
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Colorado Voices is a local public television program presented by RMPBS
Colorado Voices
A locomotive shop preserves its old ways
Clip | 5m 6sVideo has Closed Captions
In Strasburg, Uhrich Locomotive Works has been around since 1948. Functioning originally as a steam locomotive shop, they've transformed to be more versatile in recent years. Marlin Uhirch took over the business from his father, Virgil Uhrich, in during the 1990s. He hopes to continue the practice and teach the younger generation this skills that are starting to disappear.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipEverything was made here.
As far as the domes, the casting work, the dome.
The bell was made here as well, and the bell handle And this is where you put your hydraulic oil in that goes into the tank.
And then this up here is where you put the fuel in for the diesel engine.
The Second World War came along and they needed people to work on the railroads because the men were all being going off in the service.
Well, my father was four 4-F He went to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and he was a mechanic and a welder for them.
And he come down to this country here and he decided to build his first steam locomotive.
He started building it, I guess, after the Second World War finished up in 1948 and in turn started the Uhrich Locomotive It was a 10,000 pound locomotive Well, this one smaller, but does still weighs 8,620 pounds.
My father and my mother says, “What are we going to do with this kid anyway?
” He would take me to work with him.
So I was making molds.
When I was seven years old, out in a foundry, we had a small foundry at that time, which was over in another building.
And then from there then I joined the firm in 1967. Business here has foundry capability.
It makes iron, bronze, brass and aluminum here at this foundry.
We got a local well drilling company here for water.
He can't get parts.
We can make those parts.
So we turn around, and we go and make the parts for him.
He can't go over there to the hardware store and stuff like that to find those parts.
But we'd make all kinds of other things besides that.
For years and years, we've had apprentice programs here.
We've taken young people, girls as well as boys, teach them different crafts, learning different skills, and they become more versatile.
Yeah, they wont be building locomotives, but they learn how to go and think and how to apply their thinking to solving the problem.
Okay.
Whoever wants a bowl Hand me a bowl?
I enjoy training people and doing some of this stuff.
Now we got older guys have come here to work, keep them active, doing things.
I don't care what so that they can use their hands and their minds Tom here, He retired from the post office department, but he's going to becoming one of the best fabricators I've seen around and fabricators are figuring how to shape metal through doing something with it.
Mike, who is, Mike is 77, I think now.
hes been Come here working for us all 12 to 15 years.
And it's the creativeness and it's like a form of art that we're working as well.
And this art, you go along and you say Ill build This locomotive, build it around so it's functional.
And so that it has the looks and desires and it runs and it last for 40 years.
You see it from the very beginning.
You continue.
And this business teaches you patience, because if you don't have the patience to do it, you're never going to get it done.
The whole point is you keep working on it and get it completed.
But this is what it comes down to.
It is getting something and it's like a form of art for us as well.
Every one of these guys are enjoying what they are doing because they are dedicated looking and doing something.
It's a form of accomplishment and satisfaction.
When life gives you a house, move it.
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Colorado Voices is a local public television program presented by RMPBS