Pocahontas Sleeper (was NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 176, Issue 42)

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Actually in the mid 1960's there were 5 diner-lounges covering N&W's needs.  I spent a few days trainwatching in Roanoke summer 1966.  All the diners were Roanoke based for servicing and restocking.  For example this is how it worked on trains 3-4.  Eastbound, train 4's diner served breakfast Williamson-Roanoke.  In Roanoke the sleeper and diner were set out, and a replacement diner was attached in time to serve lunch between Roanoke-Crewe.  That diner returned from Crewe on train 3, running all the way to Williamson serving dinner in the evening and breakfast again the next morning on train 4.  The day I photographed the train eastbound, a lightweight diner was replaced at Roanoke with 1018, a heavyweight.  I'm not sure how how the rotation worked with the Powhatan Arrow Roanoke-Cincinnati.  I did observe the same diner leave Roanoke to Bristol on 17 and return that evening on 18.  I don't think there was an effort to keep the 491-494 diners assigned to particular trains.  Interesting to know if documents survived or if anyone can add to how this all worked in the time frame.

There was one more heavyweight diner kept in Roanoke as a spare, number 1019. 

--Rick Morrison


The 4/65 schedule needed four diner-lounges - 2 on the Powhatan Arrow, 1 on the Pocahontas, and 1 doing a Roanoke-Bristol round-trip on 41 and 46; the 10/70 schedule just needed 2, both on the Pocahontas).

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