Hi, I’ve sneaked over from the Model Forum.
I’m not famliar with American railroads but I’m learning!!
What other companies use Norfolk & Western tracks, is N&W still going (another name perhaps?)
Thanks for your time
Ken.
N&W is now part of Norfolk Southern (Norfolk & Western + Southern)…It also is now part owner of the former Conrail (CSX has the other pieces of Conrail plus there are “shared asset areas” around Philadelphia and Detroit)
Thanks very much for the links I’ve book marked them for later reading.
Ken.
When there still WAS a Norfolk and Western, their track between Lynchburg and Bristol, VA, was the middle “chunk” of Southern’s Washington-Birmingham line.
When I was a kid, pre-Amtrak, the New Orleans/New York train over that route, the PELICAN, used N&W power between Bristol and Lynchburg. By the time the train was at Lynchburg’s Kemper St. Station, though, Southern power had been restored. And my cousin has fond memories as a kid of seeing the Southern remove its “noisy” (diesel) engine to make room for the “hot” steam engine at Bristol (right on the VA/TN state line, actually), and vice versa.
On the other hand, the BIRMINGHAM SPECIAL of the 1960s used Southern motive power all the way through. It had Southern lettering style (in brown); and I believe it was an “F” unit with dedicated helper – if my memory doesn’t fail.
Surely there have been other through services that reverted to the original road, A-B-A?
There are lots of services that turned themselves over to two or more other companies, of course: think of any pre-BN, pre-Amtrak service from Chicago thru Colorado to the West Coast.
you might find this useful: http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/000/385hxunm.asp
During the John L. Lewis coal strike, about 1949, Southern E-units handled the Tennesean and Birmingham Special and possibly other passenger trains when on N&W tracks.
There used to be a through Penn Station NY - Roanoke sleeper that operated via Harrisburg, PA and then on a line that came into Roanoke from the north. I forget the name of the intechange point, but this was the line that distinctive 4-8-0 N&W locomotives ruled up to dieselization. I assume the line is still used for freight by NS. This would be a PRR sleeper most of the time.
Between Petersburg and Norfolk, through ACL, RF&P, and PRR sleepers provide a New York - Norfolk overnight. I rode this. At Petersburg, the sleeper got tacked on the rear of one of the three through N&W Norfolk - Cincinnati trains: The Pocahuntas, the Powhattan Arow, and the Cavalier. Which had which time slot, I don’t remember. And there was of course a similar move in reverse.
I’m certain the ACL was used between Richmond and Petersburg and not the SAL. The ACL sleeper was purple. Quite a contrast to the red N&W cars.
Also, didn’t the Virginian use the N&W station in Roanoke (or somewhere), with their one passenger train using trackage rights on the N&W to reach the station? This would only be in the steam days, and the Virginian did have a few 4-6-2’s for this service, and their trains were fairly short. Never actually rode one.
That’s one h… of a family tree!! I could run nearly any roadname on my layout and it would make sense.
Thanks for all the info.
Ken.
Short, but a beautiful locomotive!
Yes, you could run almost any kind of eqiupment, especially “toward the end” in between the time Pullman got rid of its Pullman cars and Amtrak cut off the last vestige of passenger service on the D.C. - Birmingham line. (i.d., 1968-1971).
I recall seeing a Southern Pacific (!) sleeping car (std. 10 roomette, 6 DBR) on the train after the Pullman divestiture. Most of the Southern coaches were heavyside, some of them obviously pre-WWII in origin (high transoms and a window for every row showed original lack of A/C). Once in a while we’d get a streamlined car. As for the N&W’s own stock, you have your pick of “Tuscan Red” (same as Pennsy) or “Pocohontas Blue”. I recall vividly the diner-loung being Pocohontas Blue even though we weren’t on that main line.
smalling, you must know the name of the N&W branch that used the 4-8-0’s and conencted with the PRR. Although I suppose I could ring up the NS website and see for myself. But that was and probably is quite an operation with good scenery.
I believe that the branch in question was the Abingdon Branch, but it ran toward North Carolina and did not connect with PRR.
To Ken: I’m assuming that you’re referring to Norfolk & Western prior to October 15, 1964. On that date, it merged with Nickel Plate, Wabash, Pittsburgh & West Virginia and picked up PRR’s Sandusky line to provide a physical connection with the other roads. The new operation continued under the Norfolk and Western name but changed from a regional coal hauler to a major Eastern and Midwestern operation.
You forget N&W also aquired the Virginian.
Daveklepper, sorry to disappoint you but I know very little about N&W steam (our family didn’t move to SW Virginia until 1965.)
If a 4-8-0 did run on the Abingdon branch, that would make sense. Certainly the line was never fit for those huge mallets that ran well into the sixties. By the middle sixties the Abingdon branch had been dieselized and by the late seventies (or is it the early eighties?), prior to its abandonment, was down to one train a week to Damascus, VA, which is less than 15 miles away.
Eventually the ROW went under Commonwealth of Va. protection and is now known as the “Virginia Creeper Trail.” The trains were called “Virginia Creepers,” too.
Allen Smalling
O. Winston Link took some of his finest photos on the Abington branch.
That’s Abingdon with a “d,” if you please!
The pre-1964 merger N&W never had a branch that connected with the PRR. Its connections with PRR were all at the ends of main lines; Columbus and Cincinnati, O., and Hagerstown, Md. It also had an indirect connection with the PRR’s line down the Eastern Shore at Norfolk, via car ferry.
If you want to call the Roanoke-Hagerstown line a branch, be my guest; but its freight power was 2-8-8-2s and passenger power was 4-8-2s. You might see 4-8-0s at Hagerstown on local freights. The N&W acquired many other connections with the PRR after the 1964 merger, but none of the other roads used 4-8-0s.
The Abingdon Branch was limited by bridges to nothing larger than the M 4-8-0s, the lightest of the six classes the N&W had.
And the Virginian had its own station in Roanoke.
Old Timer