NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 6, Issue 18

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

You are spot on Jerry.  I too rode behind 611 and 1218 in the late '80s and 
treasure the memories.  When I was a young 2LT at Ft. Eustis in 1969-1970 we 
used to run our 2-8-0 steam engines around the post for training (not to 
mention they were a lot of fun).  On Wednesdays we ran the "Kiddie Specials" 
and some lucky classes of elementary school kids got an afternoon off riding 
a train and the troops got to meet the teachers (mostly young Virginia women 
just out of college).

I can hardly imagine the outcry now if something were to have ever happened 
on one of these trips.  We live in such a time, it seems.

Thanks for a welcome note of reality!

Ed Svitil


>From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
>Reply-To: "N&amp;W Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>To: "N&amp;W Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>Subject: Re: NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 6, Issue 18
>Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 17:43:48 +0000
>
>Why did NS end its money-loosing, no-value-added, marginal advertising 
>value; insurance liability, drain-on-the-corporate-bottom-line steam 
>program?
>
>Because it had become an irresponsible waste of the stock-holders' money.  
>That's why.
>
>Don't get me wrong, I loved the steam program too, and I hardly ever missed 
>an opportunity to ride. But that's because I am a railfan first and a 
>stock-holder second.  The corporation just could not afford to continue to 
>run the insurance risk that the steam program had become.  The two serious 
>accidents, the wreck in the Dismal Swamp and the sideswipe in Monroe, 
>really caused the insurance premiums to skyrocket.  I know one person 
>seriously injured in the Swamp wreck who may still have claims against the 
>railroad.  The Swamp wreck happened on an employee special.  Can you 
>imagine the outcry if it had happened on one of the school children's 
>specials?
>
>The car that received the greatest damage in the Dismal swamp was the open 
>car, the Missionary Ridge (a former Southern Railway car).  As car host 
>chairman for the Tidewater Chapter, NRHS, I would have probably been in 
>that very car when it wrecked.  ( This was my usual custom for trips from 
>Norfolk to Petersburg, as I normally planned my tours through the train to 
>ensure that I was in the open car when we went through the swamp.)  
>Fortunately for me, I had opted to go out of town for a Cass Railfan 
>Weekend.  I learned about the wreck in the Dismal Swamp on my way home from 
>Cass from a radio news broadcast.
>
>Jerry Kay, Portsmouth, Virginia
>-------------- Original message from nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org: 
>--------------
>
>At the risk of opening a can of worms, or resurrecting an old topic, 
>exactly why did NS end the steam program?
>
>Tom
>
>Subject: Re: Visit to the O. Winston Link Museum
>
>Link had nothing to do with the restoration of 1218 from a display
>piece to operational status. That was Bob Claytor's dream, and executed
>by the Steam Shop crew in Birmingham, Alabama removed from Musuem on
>May 10, 1985, completed in Spring, 1987. Sadly the 1218 was only to
>run through the end of 1991 before being placed back in the shop for
>major work. It was not a top priority project and was worked only on
>occasion. Three days after Graham Claytor died in 1994, orders from Bob
>Lovelace of NS in Norfolk stopped all work on 1218.
><< message5.txt >>
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