Robert Linsey
In 1988, Robert Linsey very generously donated some 8,000 photographic images of the Cleveland Union Terminal Construction. The material had once been part of the The Cleveland Union Terminal archive before donor Gerald Adams purchased it. These two gifts have re-united the original archive.
A Cleveland native, Linsey has enjoyed a long railroad career, beginning as a clerk in the Clark Avenue Yards of the Baltimore & Ohio RR. He now lives in the Albany, NY, area, working for Conrail. He serves his local unit of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers as a Local Chairman and as the Eastern Member of the BLE's internal Board of Appeals. He describes his involvement with this collection:
My introduction to the collection that I have donated was through my interest in the history of the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit and the other traction projects planned by the Van Sweringens. I became acquainted with the then-Chief Engineer of the Cleveland Union Terminal, John Anderson, who had been employed by the CUT since its construction. He was approaching retirement and was concerned about the future of a large archive of material that was stored in the terminal. The collection of negatives and photographs was included and he granted me custody of this material in 1968.
I have stored this material since that time with the best intentions of fulfilling a commitment I made to put this material to good historical use. My work and personal obligations, however, have precluded me from doing much more than providing safe storage. Inclusion with the previously established Cleveland Union Terminal archives at Cleveland State should enable fulfillment of that promise.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to Marcus Ruef of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers who discovered [The Cleveland Union Terminal] web site through which we eventually made contact.
— Robert Linsey, February 1998
