Max Miller 1936-2024

 

Max helping catalog images at the NHRHTA Photo Library

I'm very sorry to have to report the passing of Max Miller - a wonderful friend of The Valley Local, the Valley Railroad, the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association and Connecticut railroads in general.

I've known Max ever since my first days working on the Valley Railroad way back in 1987. He was the head of the track crew and a stalwart of the Wednesday night volunteer nights back then. I'll never forget when somebody was passing around photos during one of those nights that he invariably was able to tell you just about everything there was to know about the image - even down to estimating when it was taken by the number of insulators on the telegraph poles!

We lost touch after I left the railroad, but our paths crossed again many years later at the big Springfield train show. He'd heard about our efforts to catalog the NHRHTA photo library and offered to help out. I'd recently moved to within 30 minutes of his home and, remembering his extensive knowledge about the New Haven Railroad, I couldn't accept his offer fast enough.

But we really hit it off over our mutual love of the New Haven's Connecticut Valley Line. In fact, he was one of the two primary influences behind my choosing to model the line. He was so kind and generous not only with his time and knowledge of the line, but his impressive collection of photos was - and continues to be - the foundation of all my prototype research.

Lots of folks had encouraged him to somehow get all of that knowledge into a book - and he worked on it for many years, always adding to it. I'll always cherish the time he and I went up to the UCONN railroad archive to spend a day doing research for it. Thankfully, he finally did - literally write the book - about the Valley Line.

In addition to his kindness and generosity, Max was also one of the least assuming men you'd meet - which had a way of hiding his wide-ranging experience with everything from steam shovels to how best to handle glass plate negatives. I'll miss his usual greeting whenever somebody would approach him with a question, an artifact, or a photo - "Whatchagot?" Then he'd consider whatever you came to him with and would invariably come up with just the right answer or information from his encyclopedic mind.

I could certainly go on about what an impact Max has had not only on my hobby, but my life. Suffice it to say he will be well and sorely missed by everyone who had the privilege of knowing him and having him be a part of their lives.

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