Boaz and Irving (dare I say Mutt and Jeff?)

[NW Mailing List]

Jimmy:  Thanks for the Railfan reference re Boaz.

Sam:  If you have access to Ed King's A--Mercedes of Steam, go to p. 
147, which pictures Y6 2148, in reverse, pushing a WB mixed freight East 
of Montvale.  I know the spot well: it is immediately off  the western 
slope of Taylor's Mountain, a finger roughly perpendicular from the Blue 
Ridge chain, playing out at Irving.  Westbound crews opting not to 
chance a stall on the way to Buford's Gap just East of Blue Ridge would 
pick up their pusher at Irving.  There was a mild WB 0.6 grade, 
half-mile-plus climb from the Irving siding to the high point on the 
Taylor's Mountain stretch, followed by an approximately 1.5 mile, 0.5 
grade downhill run which the head-end engine and pusher alike would 
exploit to the full preparatory to hitting the roughly six-mile climb, 
starting about a mile East of Montvale, to Buford's Gap.  For both head- 
end engine and pusher to get full benefit of that downhill break, 
pushers had to connect at Irving.  Precisely, I conclude, No. 2148's 
story in the photo.

No. 2148 doubtless began working that day from Boaz; instead of 
returning light to Boaz following the Blue Ridge climb, as many 
(probably most) Boaz pushers did, No. 2148 continued all the way to 
Irving (some nine miles ahead) to await there the call for a WB shove.  
The Irving siding almost certainly saw far less traffic (no coal drags) 
than Boaz.   But there it was for WB over-Blue Ridge calls as needed.  I 
believe I have read an account of even celebrity A-1218 in her working 
days stalling out WB to Blue Ridge and needing help, having earlier 
passed up the prudent choice, given her tonnage that day, at Irving.

I might add:  When in the mid-'50s the N&W began aggregating EB 
200-or-more coal consists at Montvale (from Y+A head-end, Y pusher 
150-load (approximately) over-Blue Ridge runs, which picked up some 50 
fill loads from an earlier Montvale Turn), what lay straight ahead, with 
little head-start time?  Taylor's Mountain!  Not in the the same league 
with the 1.2 Blue Ridge grade EB, but mighty pushing and hauling all the 
same for the 2+1 team departing full stop from Montvale, to face little 
get-up-momentum time for Taylor's Mountain.   Once over the western 
slope of Taylor's Mountain, pushers would disconnect and run the short 
distance to Irving.  At the crossover, depending upon traffic needs, the 
pushers would hole up at the Irving siding or head WB light.

For a piece on the Irving siding, see The Arrow, v.15, n.5.

Frank Gibson