"Taking Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren

[NW Mailing List]

I took a break from mowing grass, and decided to google "cotton thread 
waste" and came up with a number of sources, nearly all of them in China or 
India, and only one website that had a decent photo of the stuff. Here's the 
link:

http://sonasales.tradeindia.com/Exporters_Suppliers/Exporter16391.249404/Cot
ton-Wastes.html

Greg Harrod








In a message dated 5/22/2009 4:05:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:



> Greg's description of the use of dampened cotton waste by VGN crews to 

> breathe through in tunnels reminds me what my grandmother told me about a 

> similar practice by the engine crews on the N&W (my grandfather was an 

> engineer on the Pokey).  She said that the crews would keep a bucket on the engine 

> deck with water and burlap sacks in the bucket, and they would wrap the 

> sacks around their heads except for their noses, and sometimes their noses 

> would get blistered.  The old, tight Elkhorn tunnel, aka Coaldale tunnel, was 

> probably the prime culprit it this ordeal pre-electrification when an 

> engine crew might be on the second engine where they suffered from the heat 

> thrown off by both engines as they went upgrade through the tunnel.

>  

> Gordon Hamilton

> 





**************
Stay connected and tighten your budget with a great mobile 
device for under $50. Take a Peek! 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100122638x1221845911x1201401556/aol?redir=http://www.getpeek.com/aol)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20090522/8ac51bb1/attachment.html>