N&W in 1904 -- East End Tunnel

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PERSONALS AND BRIEFS
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    The old trouble in East End tunnel came near being repeated yesterday when the huge ventilating fan refused to work leaving the tunnel in a suffocating condition.  Earnest Cash, a well known engineer on a North Fork pusher engine, was relieved yesterday in an almost breathless condition.  The crew of extra 744 were well nigh overcome when the heavy coal train reached the east end of the tunnel.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
August 9, 1904

[Obviously, the only tunnel with a ventilating fan that a North Fork pusher crew would encounter would be the original, single-track Elkhorn tunnel (a.k.a. Coaldale tunnel).  I don't know why the reporter called it "East End tunnel."  My grandfather Yearout was an engineer on the Pokey, and I remember my grandmother mentioning a Cash who was a family friend; possibly the same one mentioned above.

Gordon Hamilton
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