House Car Run (NW Mailing List)

[NW Mailing List]

Abram,

1.) As Ken mentioned, this was a regularly scheduled train but was 
dispatched to fulfil Mr. Link's requirements to create a cover photo for 
his soon to be released album Thunder on Blue Ridge (1959). e.g. One 
requirement/request was that no fireman, brakeman, road-foreman, etc. 
were to be in the gangways as 'spectators'. Only engineers in the cab 
windows looking forward. The vision this man had for all these 
simultaneous projects and details amazes me to this day; AND he had a 
full-time day job.

2.) All the information re Norfolk Division train crews in Roanoke was 
quoted from a Mr. James B. Scott, N&W engineer (The Arrow, Vol.16 No.3) 
NOT from Link's liner notes. So I guess you'll have to take up your 
issues with him. I appreciate you sharing what was the typical operation 
in Roanoke from calling a crew, to boarding the loco/train, to getting 
orders, and normal departure tracks. I take it 16th St. was busy three 
shifts a day?

John Garner



The latest post of Herr Garner, Grand Duke of Newport, Va, raises two 
questions for me:

(1)  Why would the House Car Run be getting a helper eastbound up Blue 
Ridge?  That says to me that the train was a "tonnage train" and not 
some piddly little  handful-of-cars local.  (I do not have handy a Time 
Table showing tonnages for a Y6 or Y5 east out of Roanoke.)  And why 
would the engine have an A-Tank ?

(2)  Mr. Link's "liner notes" raise this question:  Why would the 
Head-End Brakeman be picked up at 16th St Yard Office, Roanoke?  Those 
crews reported to Shaffers Crossing.  Unless told otherwise when called, 
the Conductor reported to the Hump Yard Office and picked up his 
waybills;  the Flagman reported with the Conductor;   and the Head-End 
Brakeman reported to the Call Office and accompanied the engine crew in 
getting the engine off the Spark Track and down the Eastbound Running 
Track.  The engine would stop at the Hump Building and pick up the 
Conductor and Flagman.

The crew + engine stopped at 16th Street, "DO" Telegraph Office, to pick 
up their Clearance Card and any Train Orders.  The Head-End Brakeman 
should have been on the engine all the way from Shaffers Crossing motive 
power yard, down the Running Track to 16th St Yard Office.

I think Mr. Link made a mistake in writing the liner notes.  Perhaps he 
intended to say this:  "The engine stopped at 16th Street and the Head 
End Brakeman went over to the Yard Office to get the Clearance Card and 
Train Orders."  That would make more sense, given the way things were 
done.  But it would have made even more sense if it were the Conductor 
who went to "DO" 16th Street as he was in charge of the train and the 
orders were addressed to "C&E," meaning Conductor and Engineman.  Almost 
invariably, the Conductor got the Orders.  And besides, it would ahve 
been the Conductor who went into "DO" 16th Street to enter his departing 
train on the Train Register.

To continue the description of what the House Car Run crew would have 
done:  After getting their Orders at "DO" 16th street, the Conductor and 
Flagman dropped off the engine somewhere around 15th Street, and found 
the caboose on their train.  And the Head-End Bakeman rode the engine to 
Park Street, reversed into the Eastbound Departure Yard, and coupled up. 
  (Norfolk Division trains were usually made up on Tracks 1 - 5 in the EB 
Departure Yard;  Shenandoah Division trains on Tracks 6-7-8.  Generally, 
but not always.)

The only man who may be able to answer for us this question about 
procedures is Mr. Tommy Duncan, who worked the Operator's job at "DO" 
16th Street in the late 1950s anbd has an excellent recall of details.  
I will ask him.

In the above, I am not meaning to nit-pick.  The liner notes just jump 
out at me as being out of synch with the way things were done.

-- abram burnett,