House Car Run (NW Mailing List)

[NW Mailing List]

Abram and Tim,

I appreciate your replies re the Norfolk Division's House Car Run. I 
have been wondering about this train for almost fifty years. I first 
became aware of it while reading the liner notes on the back of O. 
Winston Link's album, Thunder on Blue Ridge. He included a footnote 
regarding the album's cover photo, Highball for the Doubleheader, that 
states "This is the N&W "House Car Run" on rainy April 18, 1959 - 3:40 
AM". This late night photo is so spectacular, and so late in steam, that 
I wanted to know what was meant by a "House Car Run". Both of you have 
helped answer that question.

I have since found a few addition resources that shed more light on the 
"House Car Run".

James B. Scott, N&W Norfolk Division engineer, writes in the May/June, 
2000 issue of The Arrow, "... there were three trains that set off cars 
in Lynchburg. First was the Phoebe Turn, then later that evening was 
#92, and after midnight, the House Car Run. We would pick up our 
clearance card and orders at the 16th Street yard office, along with the 
head brakeman."

Also, the December, 1957 N&W Freight Time Tables shows:

'Phoebe Turn' - Lv. Roanoke 5:00 PM, and Ar. Lynchburg 8:00 PM.

Train 92 - Lv. Roanoke 8:15 PM, and Ar. Lynchburg 10:30 PM.

'House Car Run' - Lv. Roanoke 11:00 PM, and Ar. Lynchburg at 2:00 AM, 
and continuing on to Ar. Crewe 6:00 AM.

The Norfolk Division was a busy piece of railroad!

It's a testimony to NWHS members and resources that this obscure 
question can still be answered some 64 years after Mr. Link took this 
photograph.

John Garner, Newport, VA.




Herr Garner asketh about the term "House Car Run" which appeared the 
other day on the List.

I was a little surprised when I saw that reference, John, as I had not 
heard or thought about  that term in almost 60 years.

  A good answer is one which furnishes context for the terms and the 
situations, so here goes.

First, HOUSE CAR.  House Car was the very old name for a box car.  If 
you read the literature of the 1860s and 1870s, box cars were carried on 
the railroad equipment inventories as House Cars.

Second, HOUSE CAR RUN.  Roanoke used to run a daily train to Lynchburg 
which carried cars destined to Lynchburg.  Moving Lynchburg cars on a 
dedicated train saved stopping through freights (maybe several of them) 
to set off and pick up.  My guess is that the crew on the House Car Run 
turned at Lynchburg and brought a train back to Roanoke, but this is 
only a guess.

The House Car Run is not shown as a numbered, schedule train, so it very 
likely operated as an Extra, but only a check of Time Tables would 
clarity that.  Nor do I know what time the House Car Run was generally 
put on duty at Roanoke.

Nor do I know when the House Car Run ceased to run, but the 
discontinuance of that train was no doubt due to a drop in traffic 
originating and terminating at Lynchburg.  During the years I was 
working out of Roanoke (1964-1979) a Phoebe Turn was operated, but there 
was no House Car Run.

Like most railroads of any size, the N&W published (for internal use) a 
document called Freight Train Classifications for Yards and Terminals, 
usually referred to in the vernacular as the "Freight Schedule Book" 
even though it did not contain schedules.  It contained directives for 
how each train was to be blocked. This book contained the "plan" by 
which the Superintendent of Transportation wanted his railroad run.

The April 25, 1939 edition of this book (which I think I have through 
the generosity of Dr. Scheer) shows the House Car Run.  The page reads:

ROANOKE to CREWE.  HOUSE CAR RUN.
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