What Would the Chief Train Dispatcher Have Put in His Journal 70 Years Ago ?

[NW Mailing List]

That’s some good detective work, Abram. 

You’re also much better at deciphering his handwriting - though I’m sure some of my difficulty is due to the fact that I am not a railroader and therefore don’t know some of those strange abbreviations!

Matt

> On Apr 19, 2021, at 4:05 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
>  
> A friend of longstanding (who hired on the railroad about ten years before I did) recently sent me a notebook which just cried out for scanning and passing along a few pages.   At the time I hired (1964,) he was an Operator and Towerman, and moved up to Train Dispatcher.  I was a dirty-shoed brakeman and "moved up" to flat feet !
>  
> The notebook is an informal, personal notebook kept by the Chief Train Dispatcher of the N&W Radford Division at **R** Office, Roanoke, in 1951.  He was responsible for operations on 255 route miles of main track (100 miles of double iron Roanoke to Bluefield, which included a pusher district, and 105 miles of heavy single track between Walton and Bristol,) plus close to 150 miles of Time Table/Train Order branches (Abingdon, Saltville, North Carolina and Galax.)
>  
> He worked seven days a week.  He took six days off for vacation September 25-30, 1951.  On another day, September 21,  he wrote,  **Leave office 10:15 acct death of sister.**  He made note of all passenger trains which ran in sections, all passenger specials, major causes of train delays (e.g. wrecks on other Divisions,) and noted one rear end collision (First 84 got into the rear end of a coal train ahead east of Vicker,)  one engine which turned over (the 433, at Salem,) and several instances of engines being derailed and delaying traffic.  He also kept track of all arranged detours due to track work in double track territory, the number of cars loaded in the coal fields each day, and the total number of loads moved east and west over his Division each day, and the whereabouts of the Division officers and the trains they were riding.  He made notes about the rebuilding of the Vicker Coal Wharf and the lowering of the track in Montgomery Tunnels.  Occasionally he would make entries reading something like,  **Good day.  No wrecks, no passenger train delays, no break-in-twos, no shop cars, no trains held out of yards.**  The man had a human side, too, for once he wrote, **Quiet, lonesome day,**  and another time he wrote  **HELL - 24 hours!** 
>  
> Now began the job of identifying the man who had kept this journal.  He did not leave us his name.  The gentleman who gave me the book suggested the names of several people who might have kept the journal.  So we began the long dig through Ancestry.com, checking to see which of the suggested individuals might have had a sister who died on September 21, 1951.  That was the trick, and enabled us to identify the writer of the journal as F. E. Stafford.  From there we just filled out the picture with documents pulled from Ancesty.com.
>  
> Frank Eggleston Stafford was born 21 April 1886 at Trigg, Giles County, Va, about 4 miles southeast of Eggleston, on the Radford Division, the son of the town physician.  He hired on the N&W as a telegrapher 27 November 1903 and was promoted to Train Dispatcher on 27 September 1916.  At the time he hired, the old line over Schooler Hill had just been abandoned, the new Low Grade route from Walton to Belspring just opened, and **the river** (Walton to Bluefield) was all single track.
>  
> The 1910 Census shows him as employed as an Operator on the railroad, living at Walkers Creek, Va.  In 1912, he married a girl named Irma, who was from a farm family of nine children in Danville.  In 1918, we find him registering for the draft, his employment given as **Telegraph Operator, Radford Division Office, N&W, Roanoke** and his physical description given as **medium height, stout build, blue eyes, brown hair.**  The 1920 Census shows him living in Roanoke and employed as an Operator.  The 1930 Census shows his employment as Train Dispatcher.  On May 20, 1942, he again registered for the draft, with occupation shown only as **N&W General Office,** his description shown as 5' 11", 190, gray hair and brown eyes, and his signature on this document matches the handwriting in the 1951 journal entries.  So, we have found and confirmed our man.
>  
> He joined the Innumerable Caravan on 20 August 1959, the Coroner writing, **Retired, found dead in his home, probable heart attack.**
>  
> Some of the more interesting pages from Mr. Stafford's journal have been scanned and put into a PDF.  You may download it from this link:
>  
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hd5UEiUprPRLPsy5HOBxJ7fOE6YX7dUM/view?usp=sharing <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hd5UEiUprPRLPsy5HOBxJ7fOE6YX7dUM/view?usp=sharing>
>  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> From N&W Magazine, May 1956: 
>  
> Frank E. Stafford  
>  
> Repairing a tunnel on the Norfolk and Western was responsible for Mr. Stafford's employment by the railroad. The tunnel was located west of Eggles­ton in Mr. Stafford's native Giles County and when he heard about the work, he promptly applied for a job as a member of the extra force assigned to the tunnel. He was then not yet 15 years old. But he was strong and husky and when he asked Foreman W. E. Johnson for employment, he was hired. That was in February, 1901.
>  
> Young Frank Stafford probably didn't figure he'd stay with the N. & W. nearly 55 years 'way back then. But his job on the extra force led him to seek employment at Eggleston station where he was taken on as warehouseman in October, 1902 at a salary of $15.00 a month. The agent, J. S. Goldsmith, offered to teach him telegraphy and found him an apt pupil. So skilled in "pounding the brass" did Mr. Stafford become that in the following ovember the late J. M. Mcllhany, then chief dispatcher and later terminal train­master at Bluefield, put him to work as extra operator without an examination.
> 
> "That was the time the Pembroke and Eggleston tunnels were being built and the railroad was full of work trains, 12 and 14 a day. They needed a three­man force at Eggleston station and I was one of them. I got my first regular job as day operator working at a little place called 'Allen', a block office about I½ miles west of Eggleston. That was in January, 1904.”
> 
> After that, Mr. Stafford worked as operator wherever the chief assigned him, finally settling down in "GM" Telegraph Office, Roanoke, in 1907. He stayed there about five years and re­turned to the Radford Division where he again worked as operator. Along about this time his skill and efficiency as a railroader came to the notice of Superintendent J. W. Cook and in January, 1916 when an extra dispatcher was needed, it was Frank Stafford who got the call.
>  
> Then some interesting things began to happen. In July, 1918 the Norfolk and Western purchased the Virginia Carolina Railway, now our Abingdon Branch. In those days train operation on the branch was directed by a dis­patcher located at Abingdon. The first N. & W. man called to work on Abingdon Branch was F. E. Stafford as extra dispatcher. Two years later he returned to the Radford Division office as extra dispatcher and in September, 1920 he received an unusual assign­ment. Superintendent Cook called him in the office one day and said, "Frank, I want you to go to Pepper and act as yardmaster while Pepper Bridge is being rebuilt." Then, as now, the bridge was a single track structure (across New River) and traffic was heavy. Repairing the bridge under traffic de­manded the services of an operating supervisor to keep the trains rolling.
>  
> But that was just the first of Mr. Stafford's experiences as yardmaster. In October, 1922, when the middle track at Elliston was lengthened and a culvert was being widened, he was again assigned as yardmaster with headquarters in Elliston. His third and last experience as yardmaster came in June, 1926 when he went to Arthur during the lengthening of the middle track there. That was his longest assignment as yardmaster-14 months.
> 
> Immediately after his return to the office, he was made regular dispatcher, serving in that position until June, 1938 when he was advanced to night chief dispatcher. Just as the United States was becoming deeply involved in World War II, he became chief dispatcher, in September, 1942.
> 
> As everybody knows, Chief Dis­patcher Stafford has acquitted himself well in his responsible operating post, but he gives himself a very small share of the credit.  "If I had any success in that job," he told the Magazine, "it was due to the wonderful support given me by the boys on the Radford Division.  Everybody on the road was most co­operative, but there at headquarters we had the best office force I ever saw. When I went home in the evening, I never had to worry because I knew that everything would be taken care of."  
>  
> Frank Stafford's admiration and esteem for his co-workers is heartily reciprocated by them. Shortly before he retired, they gave him a surprise party at Yearly Haven, presented him with a number of gifts and expressed their high regard for him as a man and a true friend. So now he’s a gentleman of leisure, with plenty of time for his rose garden, for long fishing trips to Taylor's Valley, and for seeking the quail and rabbits during hunting season.
> 
> And when he sits on the river bank or on a tree stump in the mountains, he'll surely be thinking of the busy but interesting days he has left behind. But they’ll be pleasant thoughts be­cause he'll always remember that throughout those nearly 55 years he never had a day against his record, and never was involved in an accident investigation.
>  
> That’s a career to be proud of.
>  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> From N&W Magazine, September 1959:
>  
> Employees on the Radford Division and elsewhere on the railroad were saddened by the sudden passing on August 20 of retired
> Chief Dispatcher F. E. Stafford.  “Chief” Stafford will be missed, and we on the Radford Division extend our sincere sympathy to Mrs. Stafford and her daughter in their loss.
>  
> >> Photo of Mr Stafford is attached.  <<
>  
> -- abram burnett
> <Stafford, Frank E__from N&W Magazine_ed.jpg>________________________________________
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