ROBERT “BOB” MAYNARD
World War II Army Air Corp Veteran
July 06, 1919 – February 27, 2010
Cincinnati, Ohio

On February 27, 2010 we lost one of our greatest promoters of the live steam hobby, Robert “Bob” Maynard, in his 91^styear.

Bob may best be known to the live steam community as the designer of the Clishay engine.  This marrying of the Shay and Climax engines was designed and built for Bill Fitt as a birthday present from his wife, Doris. This became a serialized build project in Live Steam Magazine. Bob designed it for the first time builder who had minimal tools available, and it became an extremely popular engine.  His building of the model  towboat Omar, from riding of the boat, taking movies, measuring the boat, then building a museum model was a measure of his intensity for perfection.

Others may remember him best for his fascinating and informative articles published in national magazines as far back as 1950 (or earlier) and as recent as 2006.  He had over three dozen articles in Live Steam and at least a dozen articles in both Modeltec and Model Engineer magazines, respectively.

Bob served as enthusiastic mentor to anyone interested in any aspect of the hobby and as friend to everyone having the pleasure of meeting him.  He and his late wife, Ev, traveled extensively riding trains of all sizes.  They shared some of numerous trips to ride the Durango & Silverton or the Shays of Cass with friends.

Bob, along with five others interested in sharing their love of steam engines joined in forming the Cincinnati Cinder Sniffers club, starting out with a 100 foot oval in Bob’s back yard.  Temporary track locations eventually led to the purchase in 1967 of a permanent home in Dover, Indiana.  This track was eventually named, the “Bob and Ev Maynard Live Steam Railroad Park” as a tribute to their contributions in instilling their passion of the hobby in countless others.  As the  current Cinder Sniffers president, Vincent Bradley stated, “Several of us have his engines and they will continue to ply the rails.  His influence will be felt for many years to come..”

Bob’s contributions in live steam will forever be an inspiration to this hobby.

Tributes from various individuals may be found at www.cindersniffers.org.

Submitted,  Charlotte Hughes, Corresponding Secretary, Cinder Sniffers, Inc.