1958 - N&W Announces Winners In Safety Competition

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Roanoke Times - March 9, 1958

N&W Announces Winners In Safety Competition

   The safest Norfolk and Western working groups will be honored at 
four dinners along the railway in the next ten days.
   Winners for 1957 in each category of the annual safety contest are 
Shenandoah (divisions), Portsmouth Ohio (terminals), Williamson, W. 
Va. (line shops - group A), Petersburg (line shops, group B), smith 
shops (Roanoke Shops - group A), shop yard (Roanoke Shops - group 8), 
and stores department (other departments).
   N&W Superintendent Safety D. W. Naff will present certificates to 
the winners at banquets in Roanoke, March 12; Petersburg, March 13; 
Portsmouth March 17, and Williamson March 18.
   The railway completed last year with an employe casualty rate of 
3.92 per million man-hours worked to rank it eighth among the 
nation's largest rail lines. The figure was an improvement over the 
1956 rate of 4.39. A "casualty" is defined as a mishap which keeps an 
employe from his job for more than three days.
   Williamson Shops worked the greatest total time without a single 
reportable accident - a perfect record for 1,127,056 man-hours. The 
stores department also was accident-free with 841,765 hours. Winners 
in three other classes also had spotless records: Roanoke smith shop, 
354,955 man-hours; Roanoke shop yard, 194,496, and Petersburg shop, 
189,028. Fifteen other shops had perfect records with less hours worked.
   The railway's five operating divisions were led by Shenandoah with 
three injuries in 1,535,347 man-hours for a casualty rate of 1.95. 
Shenandoah won in its category for the second straight year.
   About 170 employes will attend the Hotel Roanoke dinner on 
Wednesday when recognition will be given the division which runs 
through Roanoke from Maryland into North Carolina, the stores 
department and the two winning sections of Roanoke Shops.
   After dinner at 6:16 p.m. Naff will present certificates to H. E. 
Carter, Shenandoah Division superintendent; General Storekeeper M. F. 
Stewart, and E. E. Barton and V. G. Adams, foremen of the smith shop 
and yard in Roanoke Shops.
   There will be brief talks by C. P. Blair, assistant general 
manager and general superintendent of the eastern general division; 
E. A. Manetta, assistant superintendent motive power-personnel and 
Purchasing Agent R. G. Bishop. Toastmaster will be W. R. Kinsey, 
general foreman, locomotive department. The invocation will be by W. 
F. Long, Shaffers Crossing storekeeper.
   Representatives of ten other shops which had perfect records will 
less hours worked also will attend the Roanoke dinner and receive 
awards. The "no-accident" shops are Shaffers Crossing car department, 
Shenandoah and these Roanoke shop divisions: S.I.&P, electrical, 
passenger, coach yard, wheel, automotive maintenance, planing mill 
and tank shop.
   A Petersburg dinner at Arnettes Restaurant on March 13 will honor 
Petersburg shop and the shops at Crewe and Lynchburg which also had 
perfect records. Awards will be given Portsmouth terminal and Kenova 
shop at a dinner in the Portsmouth Elks Club on March 17. Williamson 
shop will receive its award at a Mountaineer Hotel banquet there on 
March 18. Iaeger and Norton shops also will be honored there for 
perfect records.

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link