House Car Run

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The "House Car Run" left Roanoke every night for Lynchburg, handling preferentially cars for the large freight house at the latter point.  This was back in the days when LCL (less than car load) traffic originated from points all over the system.  For instance, Kenova loaded cars at the freight station, bound for Bluefield, Roanoke and further destinations. Once it was sorted,. the locals would distribute the packages/goods/baby chicks/tombstones (that's what gang boards were for...Ha!)/whatever, to the relevant country stations (The N&W movie "Operation  Fast Freight" has  a good illustration of that).
This was during the days when Railway Express Agency did a booming business in the larger cities.  All this ended about the time passenger service did.  Thus, the rise of UPS/FedEx and so forth. 

In my opinion, the railroads dropped the ball on this business. The infrastructure was already in place.  Remember the green REA trucks? Just think what an opportunity N&W had/lost when it controlled Piedmont Airlines... 

Sometimes the House Car run would operate as a Phoebe turn.  Usually it was doubleheaded.  Much of this information came from my interviews with H.T. "Henry" Nase, who was a Norfolk Division dispatcher and later system rules examiner.
Tim Hensley
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