Here’s a shot my dad took of a train coming into Roanoke in August of 1952
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=241593
Anyone know a way to try and ID this train? As to the J, it’s 60 something… I can’t tell what the last number is.
Thanks for looking and corrections are welcome.
Charles Freericks
Hi Chas,
looks like N&W really want’d to keep the RPO business going. Any Harrisbug shots?
…Tried to enlarge the photo but it gets too grainy to do any better with the number plate…
Agree with Rix, plenty of mail / express cars on that train. The J is a reminder of back when 611 did quite a few visits here in Muncie…{in the 80’s}. That was really interesting to get to really look one of those great engines over as it would be here for several hours with the touring train.
And when it would leave {towards Frankfort, In. west…} I managed some good photos of it and it’s train of 20 some cars {at speed}, from an interstate highway type bridge…But sadly no visits anymore.
Edit: August, '52…Hmm. Uncle Sam decided he wanted me to help that very month and thru that I was riding some steam pulled trains that very month.
Another photo I particularly like. I like the art deco look and the J is one of my favorites.
Mook
Okay, here’s a “shot”: The train is eastbound, crossing Jefferson Street (that is the First Street Bridge in the background - called Henry Street back in the 50’s). By the lack of long shadows under the bus an automobile driving on Shenandoah Avenue, it appears that the photo was taken somewhat close to Noon.
I have a Sept. 27, 1953 timetable, and someone likely has one in effect for August of 1952. Using the assumption that the train is on time - and all N&W fans would assert that - what eastbound trains rolled into Roanoke about mid-day? By the 1953 timetable, the Pocahontas was due eastbound in Roanoke at 11:30 AM, with a departure for Norfolk at 12:15. Another possibility is “The Tennessean”, due in from Bristol at 2:02 PM and leaving for Lynchburg and Charlottesville at 2:17. The number of head-end revenue cars suggests to me that it is The Tennessean… but I wasn’t there and I welcome other views.
(lived 30+ years in Roanoke) Bill
Thanks for the commnents and thoughts, all… as to the number, I enlarged the orginal scan and it’s no better… I can tell the second number is wide, like the first number, and as the entire fleet was either 60 something or 61 something, I get the 60 from that. As to the third number, I guess it will remain a mystery.
Regarding the time of the train… great eyes… thanks for narrowing it down. I’m going to do some web searching later to see if there are descriptions of the consists of those two trains.
If you are sure that is the case, then, by the crosshead guide support, it has to be 605-609. For some reason my mind says it looks like 609, but, you really can’t tell.
The number itself sure looks like it’s 609. But based on the 605 to 609 span, the only one I can honestly eliminate is 607.
Now I’m set on solving this mystery too… I’m going to play with it later in Photoshop… see if over sharpening helps.
It’s 609… I couldn’t get the scan clearer… but then I thought let me look at the original image with a magnifying glass. The numbers are still blury there… but the blurs are more defined, if that makes sense… it’s very definetely 609.
It’s also the Pocohontas, #4. The picture next to it is the Powhattan Arrow leaving. They were within 25 minutes of each other at Roanoke.
Don’t know why this makes me feel good, but I’m really psyched to have it all solved.
…Sure…It’s fun and satisfying to solve a challange like that. Before you posted your conformation, I too thought it looked like a “9”…It’s amazing how much one can pull out of an image to answer some questions. I was even thinking that looks like a '51 Dodge to add to bracket the date of the photo…
And what kind of bus is it?
Is that a Ford city bus?
…Can’t seem to gleen anything from the bus. It is a city bus on the small side…One could pull up a web site of antique buses and find one to fit it’s profile and probably nail it down as to the manufacturer.
Edit: I do enjoy the photos you post from your father’s supply of them back a bit in time to take a good look and identify things.
AND – it’s not 609.
I put the magnifying glass to the Powhattan Arrow photo (which I will post soon) and that engine is clearly 609, leaving in the other direction.
It’s definetly round at the top of the number. Must be 608.
Did I miss something? Where is this other picture?
Oh, I’m sorry, Jim… it’s not scanned yet. I’ll do it soon.
Cool! Adding in that information on other photos on the “roll” can help place things sometimes. I thought by the shadows that it looked to be mid-day, but I didn’t know that the Pocahontas had that much mail and took the guess the other way…
Jefferson Street was closed to street traffic many years ago, and initially there was an underpass to allow pedestrians to walk from the Hotel Roanoke (north side) to downtown (south side). Young police officers like me used to have to stand post at the underpass in the evening hours. Now the underpass is closed and there is a pedestrian overpass one block further east. That overhead bridge in the background was raised somewhat a few years ago to allow the railroad to run “double-stacks”. And after a decade or so of local debate, the bridge was recently named the “Martin Luther King bridge”, with a statue of MLK on the north side of the bridge. The bridge is now pedestrian-only, and thus is railfan-friendly. The “linear rail walk” along the south side of the tracks generally has chain-link fence between the sidewalk and the tracks, making photography difficult. Working for the City at the time, I tried every “hook” I could with both the City and the NS folks I knew to get them to put in some “camera ports”, but I couldn’t get any action and most folks wouldn’t even show the courtesy of responding to my memos. But there was a day when folks could stand virtually right ON the crossing and watch a “J” drift quietly to the station stop…
The fellow that would know the answer on the bus is Bev Fitzpatrick, who can be contacted via the City Clerk of the City of Roanoke. He operates a museum of municipal busses there in Roanoke near Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Bill
I sent an email to Bev Fitzpatrick. We’ll see what he says. Thanks for the lead.
Where is Halsey? The world wants to know![;)]
What is Halsey?
Believe he is referring to Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey. At (I believe) the Battle of Midway in 1942, Halsey took his ships away from where he needed to be and chased a Japanese decoy force (old battleships, I think). The admiral in charge of the naval forces in the battle sent a radio message that was garbled in transmission and ended up reading something like “Where is Halsey? All the world wonders.”