A Little Bit About the Lemp's

(L-R Ralph, Diana, Delice, Victoria, and Clifford)

Delice - Sister

I never really got to know her like I should have. She got married real young and moved to Florida shortly thereafter. I don’t recall ever seeing her as a kid, until the day she was married. Later on she made a lot of attempts to become closer with long hand written letters. Here I dropped the ball by not answering in-kind. But after all these years I must admit, I could barely decipher her handwriting. If that sounds like I am using that as an excuse, I probably am. Dereliction has always been my forte when it comes to communication.

As I said before I am doing this blog to kind of rectify that a little bit.

However, orally, I still talk a lot but don’t really say anything. So after running my communication skills around the barn a few times, simply put, it’s my fault that we did not spend more time together or stay in touch.

I remember going to visit them when they owned a home in the St. Petersburg area of Florida and really enjoyed her children, two lovely girls and especially her son Clifford.

My most vivid memory of that trip was having her husband Ralph telling me that he had something he wanted to show me. This was rather surprising. Because up to that point I thought he was a mute. So, we went walking to one of his neighbor’s house. We walked the short distance without either one of us uttering a word. In the neighbor’s back yard was a big cage with monkeys in it. As we stood there, Ralph quite contently threw peanuts into the cage. On the way back to his house Ralph was quite verbose. And he seemed to delight in the monkeys antics

A few years later she came to visit me when I was living in Rowley Mass.  This trip for her was a period of contemplation. She was in the throes of a break up with a person she had a social and business relationship with. From what I could gather a fishing boat was one of the losses. And it was the lose of the boat, not the man, that bothered her most.

The next time I saw Delice she was married to Frank Capone. And again it was a mix of business and relationship. The business was the dealing of church vestments and other sundry church related items. (It seems that many southern clerics have more different colored robes than Imelda Marcos has shoes)

Delice lost her son Clifford when he was still a young man and has not had an easy life. If a splintered family start and the loss of a son was not enough to contend with. She has been battling problems with her vision for many years. Several times she has come close to losing her eyesight. But after a recent operation, she assures me that she is doing well. And with her deep religious convictions, she manages to get by.

She is fortunate to have a couple of James Lemp’s paintings, which some day I hope to see.

As for her two husbands. Both, I found to be eccentric, one liked to hint that his family had ties to the mafia. And the other, an odd fondness for primates. Both good men I am sure. But you know that all brothers think; no matter who the guy is, he’s not good enough for his sister. 

I can not compare Delice to any other family member. She is unique.

Hermann Lemp- Great Grandfather

Most of what I know about my great grandfather is well documented and easy to find.

The following excerpt is from the Mid-continent Railroad museum web site. This article is about the dedication of a plaque honoring my great grandfather for his work on control systems for diesel locomotives. In August of 2003. They flew myself, Lisa, and Diana out to Wisconsin and put us up in the Best Western hotel in Baraboo. They covered all expenses and were very nice to us. I have not tried to correct the mistakes they made in this article. When we were out there we kept trying to get the great and great-great part across to them. But they still got it wrong. 

I fell in love with Wisconsin. Just like I do with any other farming area I visit.

Following this article will be another longer article about my great grandfather that I am going to put in that you will have to click on to open yourself.

Mid-Continent News (Source)

Montana Western #31 Designated ASME Landmark (8/23/03)

On Saturday August 16, sixty-five people attended the Great Northern 2313/Montana Western 31 gas-electric rail motorcar ceremony at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum. GN 2313/MW31 was designated an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. The ceremony occurred at Mid-Continent Railway Museum from 11:30 to 4:30.

This self-propelled railcar is the oldest surviving equipment from the Electro-Motive Company and predates the incorporation into the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (EMD—a major locomotive builder today. A comparison with both builder's photographs and drawings show that most of the car has remained unchanged. The car was built for the Great Northern and used from 1925 to 1939 on a run between Marcus, WA and South Nelson, BC, Canada. It was then sold to the Montana Western Railway that ran about 20 miles between Valier and Conrad, MT. In 1966, Mid-Continent Railway Museum acquired the car.

GN 2313/MW31 and sister cars represented the first major use of the Dr. Hermann Lemp control system. Dr. Lemp's control system replaced a complicated throttle and electric control system with a "one lever" system--simple enough for a steam locomotive engineer to operate. This control system was the basis of all diesel-electric locomotive systems for over fifty years. Its concepts are still embodied in the control software of today's locomotives using direct current traction motors.

Mr. Hermann Lemp III, grandson of Dr. Hermann Lemp, and two great granddaughters: Elisabeth Lemp Cheney and Diana Lemp were honored guests at the ceremony. Ms. Cheney shared reminiscences of Dr Herman Lemp. Joseph O. Slezinger III, former EMD employee, gave a talk about the development of the gasoline engine, electric traction motors, electric generator and the Lemp control system. He explained how the system on GN 2313/MW31 developed from earlier technology and led to later diesel-electric locomotive development.

GN 2313/MW31 represents the 229th in a series of historic mechanical engineering landmarks, heritage collections, and heritage sites honored by ASME International's History and Heritage (H&H) program since the program's inception in 1972. Each selection represents contributions made by the technological advances of mechanical engineering and their impact on the quality of life. ASME sections: Chicago, Fox Valley, and Rock River Valley, ASME Region VI, ASME Rail Transportation Division, and Mid-Continent Railway Museum prepared the nomination for the national H&H committee.

The 120,000-member ASME International is a worldwide engineering society focused on technical, educational and research issues. It conducts one of the world's largest technical publishing operations, holds some 30 technical conferences and 200 professional development courses each year, and sets many industrial and manufacturing standards.