Back When We Slept and Cooked on the Caboose

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By the late 1960s, may have even been earlier, my father was pretty regular on Roanoke-Bluefield time freights, and he and some others were pretty fed up with the West Virginian, so they banded together and rented an apartment, just east (railroad east) at 910 Princeton Ave called “Mayor Manor” you could easily look out the window and see the passenger station.

I remember us taking the old stove and washing machine to Bluefield in the pickup truck. I think it was four of them who shared the place, sad to say I don’t remember who the others were, but you can bet they were decent guys, as my father had no tolerance for ones who wanted to drink or carouse. I suspect they may have gotten a cheap car at some point as well.

He kept the place until he retired in June 1981, and someone else stepped in, we went and retrieved his clothes but left the other things there, as we had no real need for them.

In 2019, the Bluefield Train show was moved to the Quality Inn on Route 460. The show had been held for years in another location, but all the events were cancelled for some reason, and the show had to be relocated to this Quality Inn. The Quality Inn was where the railroad crews stayed at the time. Now, I cannot say I saw any roaches there and the place was decently clean. More than a bit overpriced in my mind. Since my wife and I were representing the Society, we drove up on Friday to do the show and stayed Friday and Saturday night. There was no restaurant in the place, and the nearest place was a few miles down the road. Then on Saturday night, the toilets stopped working. There was only one room with a working toilet in the place on Sunday. You had to go to the desk, get the room key, then return the key for the next person.

When the toilet was not working on Saturday night, I called the desk for someone from maintenance to come fix it. The maintenance person had already left for the day, so they brought me a plunger wrapped in a plastic bag. Overpriced? I’d say so. We’ll never stay there again.

I’m told the crews also no longer stay there, but someplace over nearer to Princeton.

Best
Ken Miller