Oldest steam locomotive in Virginia

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Gentlemen,

There is a good story of the Church Hill Tunnel collapse ( including many prior problems with the tunnel) in Katie Lyle's book Scalded To Death By The Steam.  The tunnel had been out of service since 1901 and was being refurbished and returned to service to accommodate growing traffic.

The trainmen and fireman escaped, although the fireman died later that night from injuries.  Many of the workers scrambled to safety.  Engineer Mason's body was retrieved.  Because of more slides further efforts were halted.  Workers said that a new construction gang was hired and put to work before their names were recorded, and it was said that more black laborers had entered the tunnel that morning looking for work.  Estimates go as high as 25 people who could possibly be buried, along with the engine and 10 flat cars that entered the tunnel that day.

BY THE WAY, Mrs. Lyle's information states that the 4-4-0 No. 231 was a 1903 product of Baldwin, meaning that it is not the oldest steam engine in Virginia.

Jeff Sanders
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
  To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 10:07 AM
  Subject: Re: Oldest steam locomotive in Virginia


  Bob:
  There's a picture of the 231 in Staufer, Shuster and Huddleston's
  book, C&O Power p. 210.  There appears to be an error in the caption- 
  "Classed A-5, it was scrapped in 1925".  The data I read about the
  collapse was from an article in the RL&HS Bulletin.  Seems 10 or
  so employees were also killed. Does anyone recall if they're still in the
  tunnel ?  On Church Hill, you can see craters created when the blue
  marl failed to support the bore.
                                                     Harry Bundy 



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  ________________________________________
  NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
  To change your subscription go to
  http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20060104/443eb04e/attachment-0001.html