N&W and Southern Thru passenger service

[NW Mailing List]

The N&W/Southern trains (45-46, 17-18,41-42) were dieselized effective January 1, 1958. By this time N&W was moving toward diesel power on all its passenger trains (Shenandoah Valley line trains already had switched to diesel power) and would achieve complete dieselization of passenger service in the summer of 1958  (except for limited, occasional use of steam around Christmas, 1958 and later excursion service).

While GP9's were not used on the N&W/Southern passenger trains, they were used on the N&W/Southern mail trains which ran in December each year to move the heavy volume of Christmas mail.
There trains, utilizing primarily box cars for the mail, ran as second sections to some (not all) of the N&W/Southern trains well into the 1960s.

      Ray Smoot
      Blacksburg, Va.



From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 7:24 AM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: N&W and Southern Thru passenger service

I took the following question from the Southern Group and am asking if anyone could explain further?


I've noticed that several of Southern and Norfolk and Western's joint trains like the Birmingham Special and Tennesean often had Southern power on the N&W portion of the route after the N&W became 100% diesel, was this normal and did all trains do this and does anyone have any info on why N&W's passenger GP9's were not used instead?

James Wall
Rural Hall, NC


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