Putting Automatic Signals on the VGN New River Division, 1960s

[NW Mailing List]

Abram,

Thanks for another interesting and informative dispatch from the turnip patch.

I have two questions which I hope you or someone else can answer:

     When was the Operator office at Fagg closed?

     Where in the Fagg area was it located?

Thanks.

     Ray Smoot

From: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2022 9:55 AM
To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Putting Automatic Signals on the VGN New River Division, 1960s

Some information is of such a unique nature, having come from living memory, that it cries out for preservation.  Of such is the following.

Mr. Ken Miller and I were recently grousing together over the interpretation of a VGN photograph taken in 1962.  Our difficulty could only be resolved by knowing something about how the N&W installed automatic block and interlocking signals on the VGN New River Division.  But it seems there may be no record of just how that was done.

So we turned to the man with the living memory, Mr. Thomas W. Duncan, of Austinville, Va.  Tommy hired on the railroad seven years before I did, in 1957.  I first got to know Tommy in 1964, when he was the third trick Operator at "CN" East Radford, and I was braking on the Potts Valley job.  He went on to become a Train Dispatcher, and I went on to become a Brakeman with dirty gloves and worn-out shoes.  We went to Tommy for an answer about how the N&W did the signalizing work on the VGN New River Division, and here is what he told us.  (I did not ask his permission to put this on the N&W List, so I beg his forgiveness...)

>>  "If I remember correctly the track between VN (an interlocked crossover)  and Salem (station) was already signaled when the merger took place.  West of VN was still Train Order territory and Salem was open 24/7 to copy orders for the westbound trains (to be routed to the New River Division) at VN.   They started installing CTC from KV Kellysville eastward. and had Operators at KV,  Rich Creek, Celco, Pembroke, Whitethorne, Merrimac, Fagg, Kumis, and Salem, which were all open 24/7, and were closed as the signals were installed eastward.  I was the first N&W Operator sent to the Virginian as my experience with Train Orders was needed and I went to the 2nd trick at Rich Creek.  The trains were coming down grade from Glen Lyn and would run about 50 to 55 MPH thru Rich Creek on Manual Block !  I remember one  coal train with (N&W) Engineer C. S. "Maggie" Childress and Conductor J. Doug Womack.  Womack hollered to the head end on the radio and asked,  "Does this thing have any brakes on it?"  as they engulfed Rich Creek in a cloud of coal dust.  This is as I remember it."  <<

Thank you Mr. Tommy Duncan, for sharing information which probably no one else has today !  Because of your generosity, it can be preserved.

--  abram burnett,
Boutique and Designer Turnips Now on Sale
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20220620/97e135fb/attachment.htm>