NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 25, Issue 14

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

    Harry  Bundy wrote:
       
      
Thanks for the clarification, Larry Crocker.  Now I need some help
  
. . . bad.  In Lamberts Point nomenclature, what were the
  
crews named that scavenged the yard to bring the RIGHT cars
  
of coal to the hump for dumping ?   Were there any assignments
  
called "trimmer" crews ?  Most of the people here in Roanoke
  
aren't that acquainted with Norfolk and can't give me an answer.
  
 
  
Answer (to the best of my knowledge):
  
Working the head of LP “were” the N&W Hump, VGN Hump and on occasion they’d call an extra crew to shove loads up the hill to the Barney Yard. The East End and Roustabout Jobs classed the coal as they broke coal trains down. This isn’t to say one of the hump crews didn’t have to do some switching on the head of the yard to get the coal that was called for. Don’t recall any “timer” jobs though the railroad may have added something like that in later years. As for those in Roke not knowing about Norfolk; most I’ve known were pretty sharp unless for whatever reason they had no reason to know.
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
The EPA would certainly have had a field day at Lamberts Point.
  
The FM shoving to the Retarder Yard would occasionally pause and
  
be obscured by exhaust.  One afternoon an engineer with two
  
ex-NKP RSD-12's failed to get a cut to the Barney yard.  The Road
  
Foreman, Mr. Kelly, went over to help him out.  They got the coal
  
to the barney yard . . . . .and turned the weather report from sunny
  
to mostly cloudy.
  
 
      Answer:
      Yep, EPA would have gone  completely crazy at times for sure.  I  can remember one hump crew engineer I was working with spotted someone from the  government or railroad photographing things from the station platform and he  purposely applied the engine brakes (independent brake for RR experts) as they  we pulled a cut of hoppers out of the main yard.  This, as you can imagine, covered the head of  LP in a thick yellow exhaust that was so heavy it settle to the ground.  The engines we had were two of the old VGN FM  units.  As to the NKP Alco RS-12’s; they were some of the dirtiest engines  I’ve ever had the displeasure of working with. They were strong, good pullers  when operating OK but just plain dirty inside and naturally out (railroad  washed those engine every time it rained).   Probable reason for the crew you spoke of not getting the cut to the top  of the hill was those old NKP units, like the VGN ones, were worn-out and one  of those Alco’s would often cut ou
 t
 leaving you with  one engine and 30 +/- loads to shove up the grade to the Barney Yard.  (30 loads was a lot to shove up the hill in  those days you know.)  Usual response was  to send another crew over and help you up the hill unless you could get the  failed unit to start and then you’d have to pull ahead so as to get a running  start.  If both units were operating and  Kelly managed to help it was probably because the engineer wasn’t familiar with  working the hump and didn’t have the throttle wide open as was needed back then  (I’m only guessing here as it’s hard to say what the problem was.)
       
      I should add for some  readers (not you) that many times when people heard of a hump they think of  shoving cars slowly over a slight rise where a brakeman pulled the cut leaver  letting the car (s) roll down through retarders and into a classification  yard.  At Lambert’s Point this operation  was called the Retarder Yard.  Hump jobs  worked the head of the yard shoving loads up to the Barney Yard.
    
		
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