Midvale - August 19, 1969 A.D.

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Wed Aug 19 19:22:03 EDT 2009


I have heard from the Southern guys that the signals did read clear.

Richard D. Shell
Troutville, VA


In a message dated 8/19/2009 11:45:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:




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




________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20090819/9ae281de/attachment.htm>


More information about the NW-Mailing-List mailing list