Local head-end work

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-----Original Message-----
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 8:10 pm
Subject: Re: Local head-end work









I don't know what took place prior to the two messages listed below, but I 
have a few comments that may be on subject.?
?

I had a job with the N&W handling mail at the Bluefield passenger station 
during my Christmas breaks from college in 1954 and 1955.  I remember 
lugging post office bags of mail and packages off the platform trucks and 
piling them up in storage mail cars.  In order to get the heaviest bags of 
Christmas packages high up on the pile toward the end of the car, we would 
sometimes have to climb up the mound of bags, feeling packages giving way 
underneath our feet, unfortunately for the recipients.?
?

We would get a chance to catch our breath for a day or two around Christmas 
Day after most Christmas mail was disposed of, only to be confronted with an 
even greater challenge as the Sears, Roebuck (also, maybe, Montgomery Ward) 
catalogs came in an unbelievable flood.  The bags of these catalogs were so 
heavy that I could hardly lift just one.  I dragged many of them across the 
floor, obviously putting a lot of wear on the Post Office's bags.?
?

These big Sears catalogs were popular at least into the 1960's because I 
remember going to the store in my early days in Roanoke to get one to keep 
at home for reference.  According to a Sears Website, Sears stopped 
publishing the general catalogs in 1993.  I seem to recall that by then, the 
size of the catalog was much smaller than the ones of the 1950's and 1960's.?
?

On a related matter, on one occasion that I remember our N&W mail handling 
gang was lounging in the mail room between trains when several of the men 
perked up and opened the door to witness what they had heard.  I joined them 
as we looked at a westbound train coming up the grade with a very 
distinctive engine exhaust.  "That's a 1200," one of them said.  Class A 
locomotives were rare enough around Bluefield in those days to attract 
attention from these railroad men whenever one showed up.  This one was 
apparently on a time freight from Roanoke.  Maybe it's assignment was being 
transferred from Roanoke to Portsmouth.?
?

Gordon Hamilton?
?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>?

To: "huddleston.eugene" <huddleston.eugene at yahoo.com>?

Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 3:45 AM?

Subject: Local head-end work?
?



> Sears and Wards catalogues?



> Monday, August 4, 2008 7:23 PM?



> From: "huddleston.eugene" <huddleston.eugene at yahoo.com>?



> To: f_scheer at yahoo.com?



>?



> As for date of my experience, it was in 1947.  I am almost positive that 

> both catalogues were distributed only once a year.  They were heavy and 

> they were very thick.  Cost of production would have been high.  I just 

> talked to 84 yr old bro in law in Croswell and he recalls them?



> well in years both before and after WW2.   I expect shipments went down 

> greatly in number around 1956, because that is when I learned that  a 

> large new Sears opened in suburban Huntington WV and in fort Wayne IN 

> about same  year.  As for other observations about ry express, I recall 

> being at ironton, Ohio depot shortly before N&W e.b Cavalier arrived.  On 

> an open baggage cart were shipments of drugs from a local small drug 

> wholesale company.  The shipments were small and not in bulk.   (This was 

> about 1954) Most interesting was where they were being shipped.  It looked 

> like there was a small box going to each station on N&W's Pocahontas Div. 

> mainline.?



>?



>?



> August 5, 2008?



>?



> Thanks for the information, Gene.  Personal observations such as these are 

> always helpful regarding head-end traffic.  Not many people took an 

> interest in this during the era you've mentioned.?



>?



> Best wishes,?



>?



> Frank?



>?



>?



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