Virginian AG's taken over by N&W

[NW Mailing List]

Geoff

Since none of us were there in a position to know, everything stated is based on conjuncture with known details.

First, when the merger took effect, Dec 1, 1959, all the N&W Class As were either stored servicable or retired. I believe that the last runs on the east end were sometime in June 1959. 

The Virginian had retired its last steam in June 1957 with SB No. 251at Princeton. Short of 906 which had been undergoing a major overhaul at Princeton when the order to stop was issued, most of the steam had simply been running out its last servicable miles. So, all Virginian steam had been stored or retired for almost 2.5 years.

As well, most of the Virginian steam servicing facilities had been retired, or being torn down. There was no need to utilize them on the former Virginian.

Second, even if steam was continuing on the N&W, the likelyhood of them taking over the 8 Class AGs and moving them to the N&W becomes slim. It would mean moving and stocking a new and additional group of repair and service parts in Crewe, Norfolk and Roanoke or wherever they went to be assigned. Which for a limited class of locomotives, is not advisable.

Third, I think comes to the matter of pride or ego. How could those locomotives that we did not design perform well on our railroad? There was, I am told, a concerted effort to eradicate all things Virginian and assimilate it into the N&W rapidly.

Finally, the last thing President Stuart Saunders wanted on "his railroad" was more outdated steam locomotives. The N&W was a modern railroad using diesels. Those limited steam locomotives still in service would be gone as soon as enough diesels were in hand to replace them all. 

Scrap was high value at the time as well, so get those rusty steam engines on their way to scrap, that turns a quick buck. Turn an asset into cash. Much the same as the proposed CP acquisition of NS would get rid of a lot of assets quickly to bring in cash flow. Of note is the quick retirement and removal of the VGN facility in Roanoke by late summer 1960. Once the roundhouse and facilities were gone, it was sold off to become a home improvement store.

Ken Miller

On Jan 9, 2016, at 4:25 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

> Members , here is a question from an Englishman
> 
> I have read several books on the Virginian RR and Gene Huddlestones book on the H8
> 
> My question is  :Why did the N&W mothball the 8 AG's it inherited from the Virginian. It seems to me that those 8 locomotives would have fitted in well with N&W "A" diagrams
> 
> Geoff Burton
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