Durham division

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I have a 6/15/1958 public TT which lists the Durham District but says "Freight Service Only" with a note “Tickets reading from or to points marked with a pyramid (which was most but not all of the listed stations) reading via Norfolk and Western Railway Company will be honored via Virginia Stage Lines, Inc. Baggage may be checked from and to these points and will be handled by Box Express Car on a tri-weekly basis leaving Lynchburg on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and leaving Durham on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays”.

That the line was still listed in the public TT suggests it had been recently discontinued and the company had yet to go through the work of revising the format of the public TT. Likewise, that it notes arrangements for passengers and baggage ticketed via N&W to be handled by bus and express car also suggests recent discontinuance as protection for tickets issued before discontinuance was authorized.

A 1946 TT has two passenger trains each way. 36 departed Durham at 7:30am and 38 departed Durham at 2:45pm. Southbound trains 35 and 37 were timed to be turns from the northbound trains and departed Lynchburg at 11:59am and 8:10pm respectively.

-- 
Larry Stone
lstone19 at stonejongleux.com





> On Sep 21, 2020, at 2:00 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Harry,
> 
> I need your help resolving my personal experience, which is that Lynchburg - Durham passenger trains No. 35 and 36 were discontinued sometime in August 1954, as opposed to your timetable info that it occurred in 1958.  Here is my experience: I was employed as a laborer in the steam locomotive shop in Durham the summers of 1952, 1953, and 1954.  In the summer of 1954 instead of going directly to Durham I spent June and July as a short boom operator on the N&W's weed spray train (covered the entire N&W east of Williamson, WV, at 13 mph - our spraying speed), and finished out the summer back at Durham in August before returning to school.  On the day of the last revenue run of Train 34 I took pictures of the passenger train crew in front of Eng. No. 107 (the reserve engine for these trains), and the next day I took pictures of the passenger train crew in front of Eng. No. 112 (along with No. 113 the regular engine for these trains) on their deadhead return to Lynchburg of the equipment that had arrived the previous day as revenue train No. 35.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate my notes on this event.
> 
> Because Trains 35 and 36 had made their last runs, when I finished work in late August (or less likely early September) those trains were no more and I had to ride to Lynchburg on a freight train.
> 
> Can you shed any light on this conflict with my personal experience and the ETT info?  Could it be that the mixed train that replaced the passenger trains were assigned Nos. 35 and 36 initially and were changed to Nos. 71 and 72 later?
> 
> Gordon Hamilton
> 
> On 9/21/2020 9:50 AM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Passenger trains, Nos. 35-36, last appeared in
>> Norfolk Div. time table #4 effective Apr. 24, 1958. After
>> that, they were replaced by mixed trains, (Nos. 71-72)
>> and were not in service when Norfolk Div. time table #15 
>> effective Apr. 26, 1959 was issued.
>> 
>> Recently, track charts show that the line from Lynchburg
>> to a lumber company south of Roxboro was still in
>> service.  From that point to Durham, service was
>> discontinued after the Southern merger.
>> 
>> The portion north of Roxboro remains in service primarily
>> to serve two steam-generating plants -- Hyco, NC and
>> Mayo.  Standard operating procedure was to route the
>> loads over the former VGN to a point east of Brookneal,
>> then the Durham District to the plants.  Empty trains
>> were routed via the Durham District to Lynchburg, then
>> west on the Blue Ridge District.  This to avoid meets  
>> on the predominant east bound traffic traveling the ex-VGN
>> But that doesn't work anymore.  Lynchburg Tunnel will
>> not clear some of the jumbo hoppers even if empty, so the
>> empty trains turn west at Vabrook and buck the eastbound
>> traffic.                                Harry Bundy
>> 
>> 
>> 
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