Steam titan Ross Rowland dies at 85

Steam titan Ross Rowland dies at 85

Ross Rowland with C&O No. 614, one of the many locomotives with which he was associated. John B. Corns SACKETS HARBOR N.Y. — As he approached his final days in recent weeks, Ross E. Rowland could look back secure in the knowledge that U.S. steam — indeed even the entire rail preservation scene— owes him a substantial debt. From his Golden Spike exhibition train of 1969 to the American Freedom Train of 1975-76 to his ACE 3000 project of 1985, Row…

Ross Rowland, Steam Entrepreneur, Dead at 85

Steam preservationist and entrepreneur Ross Rowland passed away on July 19 following a brief battle with cancer. He was 85 years old.  Rowland made his money in the commodity trading market, but his true passion was steam railroading, and in the 1960s and 1970s, he was responsible for some of the biggest steam-powered spectacles of the preservation era. Through his High Iron Company, he operated excursions across the Northeast and Midwest using …