NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 40, Issue 10

[NW Mailing List]

We always called the Seacoast Connecion between the N&W and SAL south of Petersburg, VA?"Ryan," Mr. Bundy.? Yeah, I've heard that tale about the clerk who rode north from Raleigh, NC on The Fox.? In the SCL era, we had an engineer that got on the ground @ Ryan to "roam around."? He had a penchant for being where he wasn't supposed to be.? When the brakeman returned to the engine after picking up, he knocked the brakes off and proceeded south on signal indication?towards Raleigh.? Arriving at McKenny, VA the train dispatcher told him to cut his engines off, go north thru the pass track?and?return to Ryan?to pick up your engineer.

While delivering the coal to the N&W @ Alberta, VA, we had instructions "not to work Virginian connection track at Alberta with more than two units."? Our Alberta Turns were always powered by a quartet of GP40s and this directive would require us to?split our engines in order?to deliver the coal.??With expediency in our mind, one night we shoved up the hill with the coal towards?the VGN pass track and hit an automobile on a small?crossing.? We were asked everything from how fast we were going to what throttle position the engine was in.? Thankfully, none of the chieftans asked us how many engines we were?using for all four of 'em were involved in the shove.?

Yeah, you're right about the VPs on down in the management ranks.? I might let them?be a clerk on my?"S" gauge RDG/CNJ?layout.? Need somebody to drive my jitney from roundhouse to station.? But, in spite of all their inefficiency, they've always paid off every other Friday and, in the process, I've hauled untold goods while leaving a tremendous carbon footprint.? Admittedly, NS has kicked our hindparts in every competetive market we've ever entered into.? I simply cannot bite the hand that feeds me.

Dale W. Diacont







-----Original Message-----
From: nw-mailing-list-request at nwhs.org
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sent: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 12:00 pm
Subject: NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 40, Issue 10



Send NW-Mailing-List mailing list submissions to
    nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
    http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/nw-mailing-list
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
    nw-mailing-list-request at nwhs.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
    nw-mailing-list-owner at nwhs.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of NW-Mailing-List digest..."


Today's Topics:

   1. Re: CC&O coal.... (NW Mailing List)
   2. Virginian in 1909--Coal pier (NW Mailing List)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:19:49 -0500
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: CC&O coal....
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Message-ID: <8CB561023E59B10-E8C-17E6 at MBLK-M21.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



Subject: CC&O coal....

Dale: 
I can't speak to the SCL days, but SAL had some named
fast freights No. 27 (The Capitol as I recall) and No. 86
a.k.a. "The Fox".? It was scheduled from Baldwin, FL to
Richmond in 24 hours 30 mins.??It set off perishable
traffic to N&W at Secoast.? One poor yard clerk at Raleigh
went to make a yard check as No. 86 was recrewing.? He
had to cross through the train, but as he was ready to step
off, he was face-to-face with No. 57, The Silver Meteor.?
That's when the?fresh crew left Raleigh.? The clerk couldn't
detrain safely.? So he was in the Secoast set off with the
rest of the perishables.

As far?crews required to make an Alberta turn, well I've
thought CSX was a bit top-heavy on management.? How
many vice presidents would it take ?? I note last month
the appointed ANOTHER vice president -- this one in
V.P. - Strategic Infrastructure Initiatives.? Wonder what
he does. CSX officialdom would be hard-pressed to
qualify on my Lionel.
??????????????????????????????????????????????? Harry Bundy?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment w
as scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20090205/4209480d/attachment.htm>

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 21:59:14 -0500
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Virginian in 1909--Coal pier
To: "3VGN Ry Yahoo Group"
    <VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts at yahoogroups.com>,  "2N&W Mailing List"
    <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Message-ID: <C6A34EC9B38C4F5BA927AAD33DAB30E6 at DellDesktop>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 26, 1909

MOST MODERN COAL LOADING PLANT
------
New Pier at Tidewater Terminus of Virginian Railway Will be Opened for Business 
April 1

    On April 1st the new, modern coal pier at the tidewater terminus of the 
Virginian railway, now nearing completion, will be opened for business.  The 
pier is said to be the most modern coal loading plant on the Atlantic seaboard, 
and in its arrangement, construction and equipment many innovations are noted.
    The pier proper, reaching from the head of the incline to the sea end, is 
just a little over 1,000 feet long.  It is seventy feet high and sixty-five feet 
wide, and in its length the track drops six or seven feet, which gives 
sufficient gravity to have the coal cars move in that direction.
    Over 6,000 tons of steel were used in the construction of this mammoth, 
modern pier.  The pier was designed by H. Fernstrom, chief engineer of the 
Virginian railway, and the special machinery and equipment was built to conform 
with his plans.
    The dumping machine will handle a fifty-ton railroad car every two minutes.  
This will permit of 15,000 tons of coal being handled over the pier in a 
ten-hour day.  For 300 working days in a year this would mean the dumping of 
something like 4,500,000 tons.
    The new pier is very desirably situated as to water conveniences.  It is 
some five or six miles nearer the ocean than the Norfolk and Western coal piers, 
which will mean a slight saving in time.  All the slips at which 
vessels will 
lay when being coaled, or in taking cargoes, are dredged to a depth of thirty 
feet, and this depth obtains all the way to the pier from the channel.  In fact, 
it is claimed that the new pier is so advantageously located that vessels can 
dock at any hour, day or night, as the occasion may necessitate.  The new piers 
are just west of the site of the Jamestown exposition [of 1907], and are 
directly across the bay from Newport News.
------
[In his book on the N&W, Richard E. Prince describes VGN Coal Pier 1 as a, "High 
level type with rotary dumpers on shore for loading electric conveyor cars that 
were barneyed up to the deck."  He lists 1960 as the date retired.]

Gordon Hamilton
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20090205/cafbb27b/attachment-0001.html>

------------------------------

________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

End of NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 40, Issue 10
***********************************************

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20090206/e0bb5e27/attachment.html>