Lima Locomotive Photographer Thouvenin Dies

A Canton man who was the last company photographer for Lima Locomotive Works died this past Saturday.  Louis A. Thouvenin was 91.

He began his locomotive photography career working with Don Jardine, the chief photographer at Lima. Mr. Thouvenin assumed the chief photographer position after Mr. Jardine left the company when it ended steam locomotive production in 1949.

Mr. Thouvenin continued to photograph locomotives after Lima became the Lima-Hamilton Corp. He photographed all Lima-Hamilton diesel locomotives and much of the company’s shovel and crane products.

He left Lima-Hamilton after it merged in 1951 with the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Mr. Thouvenin would later work for The Timken Company in Canton for 20 years.

In an email message, John B. Corns described Mr. Thouvenin as “quite a gentlemen, with a quiet, unassuming voice and a pleasant smile. Underneath his omnipresent striped engineer’s cap Louis sported a headful of beautiful, snow-white hair. He was one of the last of the old-school photographers who knew how to work with swings and tilts, bromide paper, and dodging-and-burning. Louis will be missed by those of us who were lucky enough to have known and loved him.”

Mr. Thouvenin was born Feb. 7, 1922, in Canton Township where he lived for most of his life. He was a U.S. Army Air Corps veteran and had retired from Timken in 1985.

Tags: Lima Locomotive Works, Lima-Hamilton Corp., Louis Thouvenin, steam locomotives, The Timken Company