Search   Keywords   Arrow   NWHS Home  
Vol. 34, No. 2 April / June 2018  Issue Select 
Issue Details
Cover Title:
Cover Subtitle: Outwitting the U-Boats, 1968 on the N&W, Destructive Fire, Virginian at Roanoke
On the Cover: This issue’s cover is simply a tribute to those great N&W Company Photographers who recorded such great examples for us to enjoy and study all these many years later. They truly did fantastic work and have received minimal recognition to this day. Look for a feature on the Norfolk and Western Photographers at some time in the future. This scene of Y6 No. 2135 has loads of coal in tow as it curves into Front Royal, Virginia. This was featured on the cover of the July 1942 Norfolk and Western Magazine as part of our feature story from the archives on defeating the U-Boats, a classic World War II piece. With German U-Boats prowling off the Eastern seaboard sinking ships almost at will, the U.S. was drastically concerned about fuel that was shipping via tanker and freighter. On May 15, 1942, the Office of Price Administration began gasoline rationing in seventeen eastern states, and followed with the rest of the country late that same year.
Articles In This Issue
Outwitting the U-Boats / Our railroad helps combat the submarine menace by hauling coal all-rail between Roanoke and Hagerstown. - A. Cheff
  Drawing War-time graphic, recreated for this piece, was used small in the original article. (Kenneth L. Miller)
  Map Showing Roanoke to Hagerstown.
  Photo Fourteen years after her small starring role in the story, the 2124 is still a valuable piece of equipment on the Shenandoah Division . Shown here at Shenandoah on October 14, 1956 . While this looks like business as usual, this scene will be gone in a matter of months . The diesels are coming rapidly, and the Shenandoah Division will be dieselized in 1957. (NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo Ready to highball! Engineer J . N . McFarland (right) and Fireman W . E . Wright proudly pose for the Magazine in the cab of 2124. (N&W Magazine Photo)
  Photo Shenandoah was still a busy place even after the War . Two merchandise trains and a yard locomotive are showing nice steam effects in the chilly air on March 26, 1955 . The locomotive to the left is 2082 with an ex-Atlantic Coast Line 24,000 gallon tender. (NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo Looking back from the tender of 2124 with coal loads heading north. (N&W Photo)
  Timetable On these two pages, you see the timetable for the Shenandoah Division that was in effect when this article was written . You can bet that every train crew member was carrying timetable No . 22 . This copy, obviously has seen a rough life since it was issued 77 years ago . From the article, the timetable really does not reflect how many trains were actually operating in a given day . These show the two passenger trains each direction, the two time freights and the two more third class freights, plus the local freight . The article reflected that some 30 trains were operating a day on the busy Shenandoah Division. (From the Archives)
  Drawing A look at the shops at Shenandoah from 1928 . In this view, north is to the right . Note the main line is faintly shown at the bottom . The shops and car repair tracks (to the right), with a capacity at the time of this drawing of 100 cars, were very busy places during World War II. (NWHS Archives Collection, HS-H10075)
A Half Century Ago / The Norfolk and Western in 1968 – Part One - Ken Miller
  Photo The above photo was used as part of the cover of the 1968 annual report (left), depicting a wide variety of equipment and road names at Roanoke yard in 1968 . A half century is awfully tough on the railroads, lots of changes over the years with mergers, abandonments and deregulation . Of all the road names depicted in the photo: only the Union Pacific (lower left hand corner) is the only one still operating as a separate corporate entity . Modelers of the era can get some great ideas of the variety of cars and road names, not to mention weathering their equipment.  (NWHS Archives Collection )
  Photo The January 1, 1968 issue of the Norfolk and Western Magazine cover was an optimistic look ahead with the sunrise . It was difficult not to be optimistic; 1967 had been a difficult year, both for the railroad and the country.  (NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo N&W President Herman Pevler
  Photo Good news for the N&W was the record loadings at Pier 6 in December 1967 . Shown here in 1966 is the Mey Lolli-Ghetti loading. (NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo Engineer on lead SD45 on the 500 car coal train, November 15, 1967.
  Photo SCOOP was a big step forward for the railroad with data being exchanged via computer punch cards, shown in the bottom photo . Note the two telephones on the desk. (NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo While the merchandise traffic had been down in 1967, the railroad was optimistic about the growth of what is commonly called the trailer on flatcar and container on flat car . Norfolk International Terminal completed a new container handling facility in May 1968. (NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo The skyline of Windsor, Ontario, is seen from one of the N&W ferries from Detroit. (NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo Another rapidly growing aspect of N&W’’s traffic was grain movements . Coal, obviously, was still the king, and that grain train looked a bit out of place in the former Virginian yard (now known as South Yard) in Roanoke, VA . December 1967. (NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo Vice-President-Law, Robert B . Claytor
  Photo Pevler blue was certainly the order of the day in 1968 . The true story of the paint is not really known . One story says it was requested by President Herman Pevler, an alumni of the Wabash railroad with its blue which is not the same color of blue . Another says it was done for the proposed N&W/C&O merger, as the C&O’s predominant color in the diesel era was called “Enchantment Blue .” There is probably some truth in both stories, but the answer is lost to history.
Norfolk and Western’s Freight Car Fleet / Unusual Covered Hopper HC-11 - Ken Miller
  Photo Two views of an HC-11 Covered Hopper. (NWHS Archives Collection)
VGN at Roanoke / Unusual View Analyzed - Ken Miller
  Photo Aerial view of the VGN facilities in Roanoke.
Destructive Fire in Roanoke / Norfolk and Western General Offices Completely Destroyed - Daily News Roanoke
  Photo The General Office building in happier times, looking from the corner of Jefferson Street and Shenandoah Avenue. (Davis Photo/NWHS Archives Collection)
  Photo Two more views taken by photographer R . P . C . Sanderson, who also was Division Superintendent of Motive Power (mentioned in the article as working that day) are courtesy of his great-grandson Peter Getz . The top left view has the roof still in place and many more viewers than the view on the following page . Below, our photographer has walked along Henry Street to the back of the building . Note the streams of water the firemen are playing on the fire; they were hampered by low water pressure. ( Courtesy of R.P.C. Sanderson Estate)
  Photo George Davis was one of Roanoke’s early photographers, and he among others, recorded the General Office Building fire of January 4, 1896 . This view was made in the latter part of the afternoon, based on the shadows after most of the roof had collapsed . To the left is Hotel Felix, later the Stratford Hotel until purchased by the N&W to become the Stratford Annex . It was torn down for construction of the “new” general Office Building in 1930 . Almost hidden in the smoke to the right is the N&W passenger station centered between the tracks . Of note here is the odd positioning of a boxcar, it is believed that the car was ordered to be placed to move records into during the fire. (Davis Photo/NWHS Archives Collection)
A Norfolk and Western Prototype You Can Model! - Ken Miller
  Photo View of scrapping a passenger car. (N&WHS Archives Collection)
  Drawing Commissary Car Building, Roanoke Shops. (N&WHS Archives Collection)
Vol. 34, No. 2 April / June 2018  Issue Select 
The Norfolk and Western Historical Society