Midvale - August 19, 1969 A.D.

[NW Mailing List]

Harry,

Even though you state that freight service on the Shenandoah Division resumed on August 29, 1969, some nine days after hurricane Camille, it's my recollection that the detour of Southern passenger trains did not begin until September 5, possibly because of the backlog of freight traffic, including Southern freight trains detoured around the washed-out Tye River bridge.

At any rate, when we heard that Southern passenger trains would be detoured over the Shenandoah Division, Roanoke to Riverton,  Bruce Sterzing (later president of the D&H RR) and I decided to take advantage of the endorsement on our N&W passes reading, "Good on engines and freight trains," by riding the engine cab on what I recall was the first of the Southern passengers trains on the detour, train No. 18, engines 4188, 4144, 6132 of September 5.  Also, in the cab was a Southern road foreman of engines and N&W Safety Department representative, the late John Rehor who wrote the impressive book, "The Nickel Plate Story."

I had my camera along and took about fifty pictures from the cab, mostly of the flood damage along the way.  This flood in this land of steep mountains and ridges was quite different from the typical mid-west floods where the water spreads out over relatively flat plains and the worse current is largely along the ordinary channel.  With Camille in Virginia the unprecedented deluge ran off the steep slopes in torrents to the valley floor where the torrents combined into very swift and powerful currents that scoured the complete width of the valley in some cases.  I wish I could show some of the pictures that I took of  such devastation, such as the foundation of house where seven occupants died (Camille resulted in 152 died or missing in Virginia), but I only had time to scan and attach four low-resolution images from the slides showing some railroad damage.

Slide 164-18 shows the south end of the restored passing siding at Loch Laird with a work train on the C&O connection to Lexington in the left distance (the C&O had trackage over the N&W Glasgow -- Loch Laird.  With names like these there must have been a lot of Scots settlers in this area.).

Slide 174-21 shows fill repair along South River north of Buena Vista.  I heard that the N&W paid $22,000 for a $6,000 farm in order to have a source of fill dirt for repairs somewhere.

Slide 165-14 shows damaged rip rap and signal case south of Midvale.

Slide 165-21 shows some of the derailed cars of the train trapped in the floor north of Midvale as Harry related.

The Southern road foreman invited Bruce and me to ride over the Southern from Riverton to Manassas with him, but fate was to deny this.  We were stopped north (compass) of Stanley by a red signal.  Walking forward (the Southern engine did not have an N&W radio) we found that a "double-barrel" coal train, i.e., one with a pusher, had buckled the 100th car and the emergency stop jackknifed the 37th, 38th and 39th cars.  Using a wayside telephone, our crew got instructions to return to Waynesboro so the detoured train could further detour over the C&O.  We backed up to Stanley siding where the engines ran around to the south end of the train for the trip back south.  The controls were switched to the opposite end of the engine consist, and we all climbed into that cab.  We picked up speed and a little later the N&W engineer called out excitedly, "I don't have any brakes!  We're starting down the mountain and I don't have any brakes."  Sure enough he had placed the 24RL automatic brake valve in full service position but the train    was picking up speed on the four mile, one-percent-plus grade.  At that point the Southern road foreman reached over and threw the handle into emergency position (the "big hole"), and the train came to a stop.  Inspection revealed that the automatic brake valve on that end of the consist was defective, so the Southern road foreman took over from the N&W engineer, explaining that he was familiar with applying the brakes by cautiously nudging the brake valve handle over the hump between full service and emergency until the "big hole" would bleed off just enough air to apply the brakes without going into emergency.  That's how we got back into Shenandoah where Bruce and I got off to catch a freight train back to Roanoke.  We wondered how late the passengers were getting to Washington after having to detour off the detour.

Harry, thanks for awaking some old memories.

Gordon Hamilton




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 9:29 AM
  Subject: Midvale - August 19, 1969 A.D.





  Forty years ago, Hurricane Camille began saturating Virginia.  A Shenandoah
  Div. crew near Midvale encountered water over the track and stopped.  The
  South River was rising.  When contacting the rear end crew to back to
  higher ground, they advised that water had also risen above the tracks.
  The crew was rescued by helicopter.  

  At 2:30 AM (20th), the Maury River rose above the N&W tracks and flooded
  downtown Glasgow.  Nearby Nelson County received 27" of rain in about
  3 hours. Nelson County received more rain, but Rockingham County had
  more flood damage.  Southern Railway's No. 47 facing strong rains stopped
  south of Charlottesville.  A good thing -  the double tracked Tye River bridge
  had been washed away.  Photos in local papers the 21st showed four
  strands of rail stretching across the Tye River valley without support.
  Wonder if Southern's signals displayed CLEAR.

  Following the flood, N&W helicoptered Asst. Gen. Manager Bill Dod and
  N&W's bridge "magician" - Henry Dearing, to survey the damage. The
  helicopter flew 20 stranded victims to safety.  

  In all, N&W's Shenandoah Division was flood-damaged in nine different places,
  including the double track bridge north of Pkin.  By August 29, N&W had
  made sufficient repairs to begin service.  Nos. 17-18-,41 and 42 were rerouted
  up the Shenandoah Div. to Waynesboro, then to Charlottesville. 
                                                     Harry Bundy  



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