Clear Fork operations

[NW Mailing List]

Hi John,

I would think the Class M2a's would have been reclassified as M2c's by 
his father's time frame. Crews referred to them as "eleven hundreds," so 
I don't know if Class M2 or M2c without a road number. Other than the 
Tug River Local, they were relegated to work trains and hung on well 
into the 1950's.

The doubleheader stumps me, but then this is "before my time" and 
operations evolved over time. The grade is not particularly steep and it 
is downhill back to Auville. With high tonnage, the same crew could make 
multiple trips, like on Crane Creek and North Fork. In this case, they 
could take east loads down to Clear Fork Junction first, then come back 
for the west loads and go home. With all of the heavy shifting to do on 
grade, a doubleheader would be more tedious than two engines under one 
boiler and cab?

Grant Carpenter

On 12/22/2019 2:49 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>
> Grant, Any chance Tom’s Dad’s 91 year old memory may be thinking of 
> double-headed M2a’s (4-8-0 Freight loco) rather than E2a’s (4-6-2 
> Passenger loco)? Not sure how long M2’s lasted on the Pokey.  John Garner
>
> *From:*NW Mailing List [mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]
> *Sent:* Friday, December 20, 2019 6:47 PM
> *To:* nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
> *Subject:* Clear Fork operations
>
> Mr. Fulton,
>
> Thanks for the recollections. I have heard little of Clear Fork 
> operations, especially before WWII. Beyond the era of Class M's, 
> doubleheaders would have been unusual, and Class M's would have been 
> more likely than Class E2a's. In another post, you mentioned two 
> "medium locomotives" that might fit the Class Z1a/1b's, which were in 
> routine service during your father's time frame.
>
> By the 1950's, what would become First AB4 Mine Run out of Auville 
> worked east on the main line to Spice Creek with a Class Y3 ("twenty 
> hundred"). Typically, they would deliver empties on their way east and 
> pull loads on their way back to Auville. East loads would be left on 
> Gordon Siding or if over-length, the east end of Wilmore Middle Track, 
> for an Elkhorn crew to pick up on their way back to Bluefield.
>
> Grant Carpenter
>
> On 11/13/2019 10:16 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>
>     Hello folks,
>
>     I'm new to the list and the N&W Historical Society. I'm originally
>     from Atlanta and live in Asheville now. But my father grew up in
>     Coalwood, WV and Grandpa was the office manager for the
>     Carter/Olga Coal company there. They tried to promote Grandpa to
>     something like Executive Assistant to the General Manager, but
>     Grandpa said that he didn't much like being considered anyone's
>     assistant. :-)
>
>     Dad graduated Big Creek High School in War in 1947 so has lots of
>     memories of some of the prime time for coal operations there. N&W
>     used to pull about 100 empties into Coalwood each morning, spend
>     time rearranging the full cars from the previous day, then haul
>     those back down in the afternoon. There was a siding just after
>     the spur came back into the main line to Iaeger and they dropped
>     all of the eastbound cars there instead of hauling them into the
>     yard at Iaeger.
>
>     My wife and I are just getting in modeling and I have also joined
>     the modeling group. Long term I'm hoping to create a layout that
>     models roughly the area from Bluefield up to Iaeger or perhaps
>     even to Williamson in the 1950s.
>
>     One question I have is which locomotives were used to run the
>     daily runs up to the mines. I think for Coalwood it was a Class
>     E2A and they were run as a double header. But this is based on
>     Dad's now 91 year old memory.
>
>     Thanks!
>
>     Tom
>

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