| N&W Diesel Locomotives in Service as of December 31, 2011 - Robert G. Bowers |
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One of the 16 remaining 1974-built ex-N&W SD40-2s, 1636, was working in Decatur, Illinois, on the former Wabash on November 8, 2006. Only two ex-N&W units left the roster between the April-May-June 2010 issue of THE ARROW and now: SW1500 2292 and GP38AC 4123. (Kevin EuDaly photo ) |
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NS ex-N&W SD40-2 1625 exits Tunnel 1 on the Kenova District east of Lovely, West Virginia, into the morning sunshine on March 2, 2008.
(Kevin EuDaly photo ) |
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Former N&W SD40-2 6165 is working westbound at Hull Interlocking at Litwar, West Virginia, on October 22, 2010. (Kevin EuDaly photo) |
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Table contains specific information of the N&W Diesel Locomotives in Service as of December 31, 2011. Road Numbers, Qty, Year Built, Builder, Model, Axles, & HP. (Bob Bowers) |
| Tied to the Past / The Barn at Kumis - Skip Salmon |
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The old barn in the photograph is about to fall dqwn, but it has stood up to alot of coal dust from West Virginia, on trains with different types of motive power in its many years. It is located just wesf of Salem, Virginia, on the Roanoke-Montgomery County line. The spot is Kumis, Milepost V260.9 on Norfolk Southem's Whitethorn District of the Virginia Division. (Not Listed) |
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Decades before the photograph above, classy Virginian PA Class 4-6-2 Pacific 215 rolls toward the barn at Kumis, Virginia, in this undated action photo. The passenger train is westbound Train 3 from Norfolk to Charleston. Trailing is one of the class BM-3 Baggage/Postal/Express cars built in 1921. The rest of the train would consist of two steel coaches. Nos. 3 and 4 were the only main line through trains on the Virginian. (N&WHS Archives collection) |
| Rails Remembered, Chapter 76 / 1954 - A Watershed Year - Louis M. Newton |
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A view from the 1920s of a Virginianpassenger train handled by a Class
EA Eight-Wheeler crossing a bridge near Leesville, Virginia, about 36 miles east of Roanoke. (Louis M. Newton collection) |
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Oops! The Virginian received some unwanted publicity when a loaded
hopper car tilted and came to rest against a coach in No. 4’s train at the Roanoke passenger station on July 31, 1954. No one was injured, and the train left Roanoke after a slight delay with only one of its usual two coaches. (Roanoke World-News, Louis M. Newton collection) |
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An editorial from The Chattanooga Times of July 8, 1954, relating the history of Missionary Ridge tunnel, which the Southern Railway had just abandoned in favor of a new route around the north end of the ridge. Contrary to the predictions, the tunnel has been preserved and is still in regular use by excursion trains of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. (Oops! The Virginian received) |
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This modern view of the tunnel includes a train at the opposite end. (courtesy East Tennessee River Valley Geotourism Map Guide) |
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The Virginian station at Huddleston, Virginia, 31.5 miles east of Roanoke,
looking east, as it appeared in the 1920s. (Louis M. Newton collection) |
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An EA Eight-Wheeler with a westbound Virginian passenger train is at Huddleston in the 1920s. Faintly visible at the far right are crossties stacked and ready for shipment. (Louis M. Newton collection) |
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Westbound Virginian train No. 3, handled by a Class PA Pacific, is on the main line at Huddleston on April 4, 1954. Note water tank at left. A 7,288-foot passing siding extends toward the east. Cars on the team track at the extreme right are for pulpwood loading. The station building
is out of sight behind train, but the train order signal is located on south side of passing siding on the outside of the curve for better visibility. (Louis M. Newton photo) |
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This view of the left front valve and cylinder heads of N&W Class J 611
at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke shows that the triangular front bypass valve head has been removed and the circular opening to the valve chamber has been welded closed. (Louis M. Newton photo) |
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In this view of Class A 1207 the triangular bypass valve heads are visible
between the right valve and cylinder heads on both the front and rear engines. Bypass valves were gradually removed from N&W locomotives in the mid-1950s. (N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Letter |
On this and following pages are some excerpts from the 1954 N&W Annual Report. Although traffic was somewhat depressed for most of the year, the company’s net income was still a respectable $26.3 million. An impressive statistic of operating efficiency — 72,670 gross ton miles per train hour — was “…among the best of railroads of comparable length.”
And it was accomplished entirely with coalburning steam locomotives — in the final year of all-steam operation. (Louis M. Newton collection) |
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Table |
The Annual Report also shows that the company owned 56,900 freight cars plus 1,703 units of work equipment. If we assume an average length of 45 feet per car, this fleet coupled together would have had a length of
about 500 miles, or roughly the distance from Norfolk, Virginia, to Fort Gay, West Virginia, on the Kenova District of the Scioto Division. |
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Class G-1 number 7, built by Baldwin in 1897, was still on the N&W roster in 1954, working the Honaker Branch in the Clinch Valley. Pictured here near the old coal wharf in Bluefield, it and its sister number 6 were even older than the venerable Class M locomotives used on the
picturesque Abingdon Branch. (N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Frederick J. Kimball, president of the Norfolk & Western Railroad from 1883 to 1895; chairman of the board, 1896–1902; and president, 1902-1903, of the Norfolk & Western Railway. In 1954 Prof. Joseph J. Lambie, in From Mine to Market, likened the Norfolk & Western to Mr. Kimball’s
“lengthened shadow.” (N&WHS Archives collection) |
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By contrast, Class Y-6b 2200 was the final road locomotive built by Roanoke Shops, in April 1952 (30 S-1a switchers were built later). It is shown here on display at the Roanoke passenger station on the occasion of the centennial of the Virginia & Tennessee’s first train into Big Lick (later Roanoke) on November 1, 1952. (Louis M. Newton photo) |
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Robert Hall (“Race Horse”) Smith, a Princeton graduate who rose through
various positions in the Operating Department before serving as president of the Norfolk & Western from 1946–1958, was an ardent champion of the company’s “modern coal-burning steam locomotives.” (N&WHS Archives collection) |
| The Electric Virginian, Part 2 / The Virginian Railway Electrification - Kevin EuDaly |
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A three-unit set of Virginian electric EL-3A locomotives moves empties near Covel, West Virginia, descending the Clark’s Gap grade. Though undated, this is likely about 1928. (N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Map |
This map of the Virginian includes the cross-country transmission lines that didn’t follow the railroad right-of-way. (ASCE Figure1, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This track profile of the electrified division of the Virginian differs in a number of small ways from the one presented in the previous issue of The Arrow. Specifically, the grade sections are more detailed with specific grades identified at points other than the towns involved, as well as several changes to the grades themselves. (ASCE Figure 2, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Table |
Characteristics of Mallet Steam Locomotives Used on the Virginian Railway. |
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Chart |
This chart shows the power profile for eastbound tonnage operating from
Mullens to Roanoke. (ASCE Figure 3, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Table |
Powerhouse Loads. |
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This graph shows a typical heavy day load at the power house in Kilowatts. (ASCE Figure 4, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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The floor plan of the turbine room and firing floor for the power plant at Narrows is shown in this drawing. (ASCE Figure 5, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This drawing shows the general plan and cross-sections of the Narrows
power plant. (ASCE Figure 6, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This chart shows the typical steam flow from one boiler at the Narrows power plant. (ASCE Figure 7, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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The Narrows power plant is seen in this photograph as it appeared when completed in the mid-1920s. (ASCE Figure 8, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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These three photos are interior shots of the power plant at Narrows.
Figure 9 is a view of the blower for supplying air to the pulverized fuel burners, Figure 10 is the mechanism for controlling the speed of the burners and draft, and Figure 11 is a view of the turbine room. (ASCE Figures 9, 10, and 11, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Narrows Power Plant, General Data. |
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This plan shows the 88,000-volt suspension tower. (ASCE Figure 12, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This diagram shows the wiring and connecting apparatus from the power house to the trolley wire and return. (ASCE Figure 14, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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The power distribution system is shown in this diagram of the system from Mullens to Roanoke. (ASCE Figure 13, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This photograph was identified as a “typical main transformer substation,”
though no date or location was given. (ASCE Figure 15, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Data Relative to Transformer Substations. |
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This photograph was identified as a “typical balancing transformer substation,” though no date or location was given. (ASCE Figure 15, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This diagram shows a typical tangent bracket. (ASCE Figure 17, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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A typical tangent cross-catenary bridge is shown in this diagram. (ASCE Figure 18, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Typical two-track catenary construction for high degree (sharp) curves is
shown in this photograph taken in the mid-1920s. (ASCE Figure 19, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Multiple-track yards require catenary to be strung across the entire width
of the yard, as seen in this photograph from the mid-1920s. (ASCE Figure 20, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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The guy and anchor for catenary supports is shown in this diagram. (ASCE Figure 21, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Locomotive Characterisitics. |
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This is a diagram of one unit of the three-unit Virginian electric EL-3A
locomotives. (ASCE Figure 22, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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The first of the new Virginian electric EL-3A locomotives has been completed and delivered in this photograph from early 1925. (Westinghouse Special Publication 1733, May 1925, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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General data for the three-unit electric locomotives was presented in
this drawing. (ASCE Figure 23, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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A crewman climbs on one of the new EL-3A electric locomotives in this
photograph from the 1928 publication. (ASCE Figure 24, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Though the exact event is lost to time, this photo of the first Virginian EL-3A set is likely right after delivery of the new locomotives. The pantographs are down and no wires are apparent in the photograph,
indicating the locomotive is not yet at work for the Virginian. (N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Condensed Data. |
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Chart |
This chart shows the total locomotive tractive power on the Virginian for the years shown. For steam locomotives the tractive force shown is that of compound operation and for electric locomotives the tractive force ratings are at the wheels. At the upper right, “A” is the tractive force at the continuous rating added by electric locomotives. “A” and “B” combined is the tractive force at the maximium rating added by electric locomotives. (Westinghouse Special Publication 1733, May 1925, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This chart shows the total tonnage capacity of Virginian’s coal car fleet per year. (Westinghouse Special Publication 1733, May 1925, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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On this chart the steam locomotive cylinder tractive force for compound
operation is shown; for electric locomotives the tractive force ratings are at the wheels. (Westinghouse Special Publication 1733, May 1925, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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Map |
This map shows the initial layout of the shop at Mullens. (ASCE Figure 26, N&WHS Archives collection) |
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The electrification is in and working in this undated view at the east end of the yard at Elmore, West Virginia. (N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This view at the east end of the yard at Elmore, West Virginia, was likely
taken on the same day as the one on the opposite page. It’s a great shot of one of Virginian’s coal gondolas. (N&WHS Archives collection) |
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This Westinghouse ad appeared in the Electric Railway Journal on June 9, 1923. Westinghouse frequently used the Virginian project to tout its electrification skills. (Kevin EuDaly collection) |
