Midvale - August 19, 1969 A.D.

[NW Mailing List]

Rockbridge County, Rockingham is North of Augusta county, Rockbridge is 
to the south where Pkin, Vesuvius, and Midvale are.

Nathan

NW Mailing List wrote:

>

>

>

> Forty years ago, Hurricane Camille began saturating Virginia.  A 

> Shenandoah

> Div. crew near Midvale encountered water over the track and stopped.  The

> South River was rising.  When contacting the rear end crew to back to

> higher ground, they advised that water had also risen above the tracks.

> The crew was rescued by helicopter. 

>  

> At 2:30 AM (20th), the Maury River rose above the N&W tracks and flooded

> downtown Glasgow.  Nearby Nelson County received 27" of rain in about

> 3 hours. Nelson County received more rain, but Rockingham County had

> more flood damage.  Southern Railway's No. 47 facing strong rains stopped

> south of Charlottesville.  A good thing -  the double tracked Tye 

> River bridge

> had been washed away.  Photos in local papers the 21st showed four

> strands of rail stretching across the Tye River valley without support.

> Wonder if Southern's signals displayed CLEAR.

>  

> Following the flood, N&W helicoptered Asst. Gen. Manager Bill Dod and

> N&W's bridge "magician" - Henry Dearing, to survey the damage. The

> helicopter flew 20 stranded victims to safety. 

>  

> In all, N&W's Shenandoah Division was flood-damaged in nine different 

> places,

> including the double track bridge north of Pkin.  By August 29, N&W had

> made sufficient repairs to begin service.  Nos. 17-18-,41 and 42 were 

> rerouted

> up the Shenandoah Div. to Waynesboro, then to Charlottesville.

>                                                    Harry Bundy  

>  

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-- 
Nathan Simmons
trainman51 at gmail.com
http://www.t-51.org
KI4MSK