N&W in 1911--Various

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 7, 1911

IN CITY AND COALFIELD
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Had Narrow Escape
    Fireman Luther Kirby is reported as improving.  Some time ago he was forced to lay off on account of a sprained arm, and when he was able to report for duty for his first trip he attempted to board a train in the yard and tripped on the signal wires that are strung along the side of the track and fell between the moving cars.  With rare presence of mind he pushed himself clear with the exception of one hand from which three fingers were mashed off.  It was a very lucky escape indeed.
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Demolished Caboose
    A slight wreck occurred in the west end yards about 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon.  An engine in some manner backed into a caboose standing on the east-bound track and entirely demolished it.  The wrecking crew was called out and had the track clear for traffic in about an hour.  No one was injured.
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President's New Car
    The new car built by the Pullman company for President Johnson has arrived at Roanoke.  The car is about the same as the one which he is now using, with the exception that it is all steel.  The interior is finished beautifully in light wood work.
[Remember that the impetus for getting a steel car was the restriction imposed by the Pennsylvania RR against wooden cars in the new tunnels under the Hudson River.]
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Mail Order Engines
    Down on the Tug Fork branch of the Norfolk and Western the newest way of expressing disgust when an engine fails is to call up the trainmaster and tell him that another of those "Sears Roebuck engines" has gone up.  Even the joke about the New York side of the Brooklyn bridge being the American side is not more witty than the one which refers to a worn out engine being the output of a catalogue mail order house.  The people along the line of the Norfolk and Western have charged the Norfolk and Western have charged the Norfolk and Western with many thing, among them being an unwillingness to build new depots where they are needed, but they never went so far as to charge the railroad with buying mail order engines.  The next thing they will be having them sent here by parcels post.  That would accommodate an enlargement of the postoffice, but it is likely that the postoffice will be enlarged before Bluefield gets a new depot.
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Gordon Hamilton
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