Norfolk Question: Passenger Engines

[NW Mailing List]

-Ken:You are correct -- for a brief period in thelate 1930s or early 1940s, Norfolk SouthernRailway did service Virginian's passengerpower.  An NS hostler ferried both the NSand VGN engines to Carolina Shops forservice.  There seemed to be several reasonswhy VGN cancelled the service:
1- NS had no stoker-fired engines and the hostler    and crew entertained themselves by tinkering 
    with the flow of coal.  Consequently, VGN engine   crews reported at Terminal Station only to find the   fire box filled with non-burning coal.
2- VGN train and engine crews for passenger trains    went on and off duty  at Sewalls Point before the    arrangement with NS.  After NS serviced the loco-    motives, VGN put the crews up at a hotel on    East Main Street - just a short distance from the    station.  Hmmm - East Main Street -- tattoo parlors,    burlesque theaters, and hotels that rented rooms by    the hour.  When families in Victoria (home Terminal)   heard of this arrangement, the town went to "8" on    the Ricter Scale.               Harry Bundy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20201015/30ef690d/attachment.html>