An Unusual Gift from a Railroad By Mark Craven

Over the past year or more, I have been sorting through many old photographs of my deceased wife, Doris, and her family. When Doris’s mother passed away, many of the family’s old photographs ended up in the bottom drawer of her bureau, not to be looked at for years. Since both Doris’s parents worked for the Baltimore and Ohio, I found many of these photos to be connected with the railroad. Two of these really caught my attention and shown here. These photos were taken May 23, 1941, at the Allegheny County Airport serving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is the description written on the back of the first photo, {Doris in front of the “Flying Ambulance” at County Airport – To be dismantled and sent to England by employees of B&O}.

The second photo shows the stencils on the amphibian aircraft which read; “Gift of The Baltimore and Ohio – Alton Railroad Employees USA Through Railway Men of Britain” and “British American Ambulance Corps”. At that time, the B&O still controlled the Alton Railroad and did so until 1942.

The amphibian aircraft being donated was a Grumman G-21 Goose. The aircraft was built at Grumman’s factory in Bethpage, Long Island. A little research shows that a group of wealthy Long Island residents, which included E. Ronald Harriman, approached Grumman for a suitable method of personal air transportation from Long Island to New York City. Grumman came up with the Goose, which was tested in May of 1937.  It was powered by two Pratt and Whitney R-985 nine cylinder 450 horsepower air cooled engines.

Of course, in 1941 Great Britain was already at war with Germany and one can only assume this gift was being given to help rescue and transport the brave British men and women involved in the war effort.

The cute little girl in the forefront of the photo, Doris Mae Davenport,  who later became my wife, was just under six years old when the photograph was taken.

On the internet, I learned that the plane was operated by the British Air Ambulance Corps and on December 1, 1942, it was transferred to the RAAF’s No 1 Air Ambulance Unit and crashed into the Mediterranean on December 9, 1942.

I regret I cannot relay more than the above on this gift to England and I can only hope some one reads the article and can add more detail.

Recently on a fishing trip to Montana, I also went to Driggs, Idaho, where I had dinner in a restaurant at the small airport. The wealthy doctor that owns the restaurant is also an antique airplane buff and has many restored airplanes among which, I understand, is a restored “Goose” and it is for sale. Any takers?