It seems that either no one has tried to answer or even guess the answers to the question I proposed a few days ago. I havd not been able to log on for several days, and today I found it stalled. I tried to help it along, and my post seems to have not taken. I will repeat the last post, which was my response to Al - in- Chgo.
al-in-chgo:
Is it Big Stone Gap? - a.s.
Yes, you would take the dummy in Big Stone Gap east to board the train, and get off the train on the west side of town and take the dummy back to downtown. Now, what road’s train did you board, where is the interchange, what road’s train did you get off, and what was the origin and what was the destination of the car?
I will add that the car started in Bristol, Va.
Al, I don’t know how I missed this last night, for I was up late with the computer.
You have the right roads, the right junction–but the wrong destination for this car. There was a time, I understand, when the L&N/V&SW did operate a car between Cincinnanti and Bristol. However, because noone else has gotten as many parts of the answer right as you have, I will let you in on the secret that this car was headed for Louisville, Ky., and declare that YOU ARE THE WINNER! I shall send you a box of corona coronas via e-mail. If you want to ask a question on this thread, go ahead.
There was an article about this evening outing in one of the Kalmbach publications within the last year or so.
Johnny, as you know, V&SW was originally South Atlantic & Ohio, “The Natural Tunnel Line.” The first passenger train from Bristol went right into town on the tracks of the Big Stone Gap & Powell Valley RR, aka the dummy line.
My father and I walked through that natural tunnel in the early spring of, I believe 1962. Freight train came along, too, but there was plenty of room inside the tunnel not to be hit. Lead engines were Southern out of the EMD carbody years IIRC.
When I lived in Norton in the late Seventies, the quickest drive to Kingsport (TN) ran right by the tunnel. At some point in the interim the tunnel had been chain-link-fenced off.
Mike, as I recall, the listing in the 1893 Guide shows the South Atlantic and Ohio, without any sleeper service.
Al, I regret that I was not able to take any of the excursions out of Bristol that went through the tunnel. The closest I came to it by rail was on a detour movement (derailment at, I think, Bluff City) of the Tennessean that used the Clinchfield from Johnson City to Frisco, went into Gate City, and then on to Bristol. Because of the track connection in Johnson City, the engine was run around to rear, and the train was pulled backwards to Gate City where the engine was put back on the front of the train, making it necesary to back into the Bristol station.
al-in-chgo:
