Railfan visit to Shafer's Crossing in 1954

[NW Mailing List]

Thanks to all who have responded to my questions.

I'm pretty sure the events around Shafer's Crossing are not from the  
1957 NRHS convention although I do have additional footage of that  
event which will be used in the same production as the one we think  
was in 1954. The 1957 footage is from a different photographer.

The 1956 segment of the DC to Shenandoah double headed fan trip is in  
Pocahontas Glory Volume 3 and was filmed by Harry Dodge and Bob Flack.  
Their film also comprises the rest of that volume plus all of volume 4  
which covers coal trains from WV to Norfolk. More of their film is in  
Volumes 5 and 6. They were really good shooters.

If Mr. Newton is on this forum, I would welcome his recollections but  
I'll probably wrap this one up soon.

It is quite true that N&W treated fan requests well. In July, 1958, I  
was invited to go on a trip to Roanoke with the late Hector Smart and  
his sons Tommy and Johnny whom I was friends with. We drove all night  
from Louisville on that trip. Mr. Smart went to the N&W offices and  
not only did he get permission for us to visit the yards and  
roundhouse but they sent a man out to meet us and we got a great tour.  
It sure made me an N&W fan. On the way back home we spent a night at  
Bluefield and visited that roundhouse, too. Several of the recently  
retired J's were in a dead line at Bluefield. Steam was clearly on the  
way out but there was plenty of it running out of Bluefield at the time.

Thanks again,

Jim Herron