VGN Questions

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Some VGN (Virginian) Questions have been fermenting away in my mind for a long time, so I shall bundle them together as a package and lay them before this august and most well-informed group. Here goeth, so buckle your seat beltS...

1. Did the VGN New River Division have a mid-Division coaling station for engines running between Elmore and Roanoke? Photos of early VGN engines show remarkably small tenders (even behind the early Mallets,) and it makes one think they could never get over the Division without taking coal somewhere along the line.

2-A. Did the VGN, prior to electrification, use helper engines behind EASTward trains over the Allegheny Mountain grade, between Whitethorne and Merrimac ? If so, this would seem to require engine facilities at Whitethorne, e.g. a wye, plus coal and water, and a man for cleaning fires, lubricating, and "watching the engine" (i.e. tending the fire and water) while the engine was not in use.

2-B. Was Merrimac the advertised home terminal for helper crews, if indeed helpers were used on the west slope ?  (What a good job that would be, for someone who lived locally ! )

3-A. For the steam helper which worked the EAST side of the mountain and pushed from Fagg to the tunnel, where did this engine get coal and water while deployed on the mountain?

3-B. Was the east slope helper (the Fagg helper) returned to Roanoke daily for service? Where did the helper engine crew report and get relieved? (I just can't imagine doing these things at Fagg ! )

4-A. In the era of Electrification, what was the VGN's pantograph policy, and were the operating instructions for electric engines ever published in a single document (booklet)?

4-B. On an engine equipped with more than one pantograph, which pantograph was to be raised, and what was the reasoning?

4-C. Did the VGN have a pantograph policy for dealing with sleet on the trolley wire, e.g. use the first pantograph for an ice-breaker and the second one for current collection?

4-D. If a pantograph on one electric engine became non-functional, was it possible to "trainline" the current and use the current collected by one pantograph to feed two engines?

Yes, I should have asked these questions 65 years, but failed to do so. Mea culpa, miserere mei.

-- abram burnett
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