60 Years Ago This Day

[NW Mailing List]

This day dawned as another typical day in the early spring in southern West Virginia. The weather is barely warming up, buds finally appearing on the trees after an exceptionally cold winter.

But this day was no typical day, even though no photographers were there to record it, it was a historic, sad day for N&W fans.

Just after 8:30 that morning, the Second Pigeon Creek shifter had departed west from Williamson, as usual and returned that late afternoon. On the next trip, however, things had interminably changed. No longer was a huge steam locomotive at the helm of this workaday mine run.

Y6b No. 2190 was scheduled to celebrate her 10th birthday in November, but the 2190 looked far older this day, she was shopworn, dirty and sooty. N&W maintenance, once a hallmark of operation had really deteriorated in the last few years, paint was no longer shiny on the steam locomotives, the graphite on the smokeboxes showed signs of rust, number plates now barely readable, no longer polished, five years before, that kind of thing never seemed to be the case. A lot had changed in the five years, and maybe not for the better.

The N&W went from 100 percent steam powered on May 7, 1955 to 100 percent diesel powered, it is believed to be the fastest Class One road dieselization in the country. 

As the 2190 made its way west, in Williamson yard, little S1a No. 291, renumbered from 215 at the very end of 1959 to clear the way for diesel numbers was also at work sorting cars to head west to the mines or market. The No. 291 was even younger than No. 2190, not even reaching her 8th birthday barely a week away.

The sun does not shine for long in southern West Virginia, the steep mountains block the sun but for a handful of hours a day. Williamson is a gritty, railroad town, it existed mainly for the railroad as a division point between Bluefield to the east and Portsmouth, Ohio to the west. It is a large gathering point for the coal mined in the surrounding areas. It is almost fitting that the remaining steam locomotives are at the terminal that the majority of the business is what fueled them; coal.

Steam retreated quickly, the first diesels were ordered for the Durham district (Lynchburg, VA to Durham, NC), ostensibly to release big steam for service elsewhere, but it brought the camel’s nose under the tent, and soon unleashed the flood. District by district steam fell, Durham, Shenandoah, Cincinnati, Columbus, Radford. Finally steam by late fall, steam was now concentrated only to the state of West Virginia.

Late that afternoon, 2190 trundled back to town, its crew probably unaware that this would be the last time they’d be burning coal to haul coal. The 291 had been turned over to a new crew, who may not have realized their role in history on Second Trick and continued to work.

By the time the Second Trick crew returned to mark off at midnight, a midnight crew was ready to go to work with one of those new diesels. The hostler took the 291, tender with barely any coal left, and worked his way to the ashpit for one last time. The fire was unceremoniously dumped, leaving enough steam in the boiler to carry the soon to be dead 291 to a spot where she’d slowly leak out the remaining lifeblood. The yard crew would soon couple the 291 to the 2190 on the end of the deadline of other steam power, ending a tradition on the N&W and railroading in general that went back well over a century.

I wrote and posted this on the N&WHS facebook page this morning.

The next Arrow, at the printer as we speak, will feature the end of steam anniversary as the cover photo and several articles.

Ken Miller




 
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