Night train helps light up Orrville building
Kristin Lorson, an Orrville artist, in front of her 14-by-40-foot painting of a train engine on the side of the Pavilion Insurance building at 234 W. Market St. in Orrville. The painting, which is attached to the building billboard-style by hooks, was unveiled the Monday before Memorial Day weekend.
It was four years ago when Kristin Lorson got a call from Orrville Mayor Dave Handwerk. She was in the car heading for Athens to see her daughter graduate with her master’s degree from Ohio University.
Suddenly, all that was secondary.
“I said, ‘Everybody, be quiet. The mayor’s calling me,’” Lorson said.
Handwerk needed somebody to get something on the wall of the Pavilion Insurance building. The call for the adornment was made by Wendell Hostetler of Wendell Hostetler’s Plans.
“They sat and talked, and both agreed that it would be a train,” Lorson said. “The year before that, I put in my notes that I wanted to put a train on that wall. I just visualized a train coming toward the road on that wall.”
Lorson isn’t sure what caused her to have that brainchild, other than Orrville and trains seem to go hand in hand for some reason.
“Orrville is a town that was founded because of the railroad coming through here,” she said.
The Pavilion Insurance building sits at 234 W. Market St. at the intersection of Liberty Street. The west-facing wall of the brick-side building was calling for something to cover its naked bricks.
Given that Orrville’s 150-year-old train depot was about a two-minute walk away, the train motif made a lot of sense. Lorson’s vision was on the way to becoming a reality.
Until it wasn’t.
What they wanted wasn’t what she envisioned.
“Not close,” she said. “What I saw was way, way more detailed and way more involved. Years ago I was just doing it completely out of my own interests. I was driven by wanting to know more. The trains were one of the biggest things that fascinated me. You just wouldn’t believe what used to be here.
“They were very specific about it just being a train. I had to research the engine and run it by them first, just to make sure it was the style of engine they were thinking. We wanted a real, working engine — something strong.”
Lorson, a meticulous researcher, deduced the engine should be a 4-6-2 steam engine. The numerical designation notates the class of steam locomotives. In this case, the 4-6-2 dates to the late-1800s, the numbers meaning the engine has four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels, and a pair of trailing wheels on one axle.
Lorson’s final work wound up about 14 feet tall by 40 feet wide, featuring the engine on a moonlit night, its headlight igniting the night sky while its steam fades into the darkness. The message, “Welcome To Orrville,” sits beneath the tracks. The engine is a spot-on match for one of the era’s speedy 4-6-2 locomotives.
“To make sure it was spot-on, usually I free-hand everything and eyeball it,” Lorson said. “I wanted to be more accurate, so I was a lot more careful about graphing it out. I wanted it to be at night. I wanted that light to be coming out of the front.”
The painting, which is attached to the building billboard-style by hooks, was unveiled the Monday before Memorial Day weekend. While it didn’t exactly match her random vision of a few years ago, Lorson seemed satisfied with the outcome.
“Sometimes these things take on a life of their own,” she said. “Even if you get roadblocks or things not exactly as you’re expecting, then you take a step back and say, ‘That actually worked out very cool.’”