N&W in 1910--Unconscious

[NW Mailing List]

This is slightly confusing to me.  How would it be that it would take the fireman that long to find that his engineer is unconscious?  Even on the M's and W's (and possibly others) where the engineer is alongside the boiler forward of the backhead, I would think an "apparently lifeless" man would be easily noticed by the fireman, who presumably would be able to see alongside the boiler from his firing position.

Was there that little communication between the two in practice, or is the firing work heavy enough that the fireman wouldn't have time to notice?

Matt Goodman
Columbus Ohio




________________________________
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: 3N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Fri, May 14, 2010 10:35:16 PM
Subject: N&W in 1910--Unconscious

 
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
November 24, 
1910
 
UNCONSCIOUS AT THE THROTTLE OF HIS 
ENGINE
------
Engineer Struck by Rock at Genoa and Not Found Until 
Train Was at Rodney
    Riding a distance of four miles unconscious 
at the throttle, Norfolk and Western Engineer J. C. Neff, of Portsmouth, was 
found by his fireman inert and apparently lifeless as the train was pulling into 
Rodney, W. Va.
    Neff is supposed to have been struck on the 
head by a rock thrown by [someone], for a four-inch gap was found in 
his scalp.
    Neff says that the last thing he remembers is 
when he was passing through Genoa, a distance of five miles to Rodney, where he 
was found by the fireman as stated.  He was placed on board a freight and 
taken to Williamson.
------
[Rodney and Genoa were on the old Twelve Pole line between 
Naugatuck and Kenova.]
 
Gordon 
Hamilton


      
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