Housekeeping

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Bill - I'm not asking you to apologize for ACL operations, and I'm not going 
to apologize for N&W's.  But ACL was not noted for good locomotive 
maintenance (I have it not only from my own experience with diesels 
dispatched out of Waycross, but from an extended conversation with a retired 
Federal Locomotive inspector who worked out of Savannah; he said that ACL 
always had trouble, unlike SAL and Southern.)  And if you look at any old 
picture book of the steam era, ACL power looked like crap.  All it would 
take is a wash rack at the major terminals and the desire to see it done. 
It wouldn't take that much time from their busy schedules.

The Powhatan Arrow was a show train and I'm not certain that the N&W ever 
expected it to make money.  I'll bet you that of all those vastly profitable 
ACL trains, most of the revenue came from mail and express which the Arrow 
didn't carry.

Why can't you leave it alone?  You are too busy comparing apples and 
oranges.  You've done it first with engines, now with coal pushers, and now 
with passenger trains.  I worked for SCL shortly after the merger, and there 
wasn't anybody who'd tell you that ACL had better locomotive maintenance 
than SAL.

EdKing
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 9:02 PM
Subject: Housekeeping



> Ed  King :   The ACL was too busy moving freight and hauling passengers 

> back

> and forth to Florida  on passenger trains operating in up to three and 

> four

> sections

> to sit around play Good Housekeeping.  Fat chance anybody ever saw that

> Powatan Arrow ever carrying green signals for a following section.  After 

> all,

> how many people needed to ride a train  between a deadend point like 

> Norfolk

> and Cincinnati?    Except  for possibly the mail and express contract, I

> will bet

> the Arrow did not make out of pocket expenses.   And at intermediate 

> stops,

> the

> conductor probably knew the passengers that got on and off the train by 

> their

> first names.  The ACL made a profit on passenger traffic and did not write 

> it

> off as a liability. To compare passenger traffic between the N&W and the 

> ACL

> is downright laughable. Amtrak never was weak enough to offer passenger

> service in or out of Roanoke from any direction. As for the Tennesseean, 

> that

> was a Southern Railway  Memphis-Washington operation, and they originated

> the majority of the passenger traffic, with the N&W being only a bit 

> player

> between Lynchburg and Bristol.  Pretty doesn't  cut it on a railroad.   If

> it did,

> aside from the J's, the N&W would strike out too.  If you think I am going 

> to

> apologize for the operations on the Atlantic Coast Line, you had better 

> find

> yourself another boy.   There must have been a valid reason to call it

> "The Standard Railroad Of The South."   Bill Sellers

>

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