N&W 1950s Steam Excursions

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Tue Sep 10 20:51:56 EDT 2013


According to my records, on May 4, 1957 a railfan excursion was run on the
Clinch Valley District, sponsored by the Baltimore Chapter (as I recall) of
the NRHS.

The group was handled in regular trains Nos. 5 and 6, with their usual
consists plus two extra coaches, a Pullman, a diner, and an open gondola (10
cars total), double-headed by E-2a's 578 and 563.

I plan to cover the operation of this train in a future article in "The
Arrow."

Louis Newton

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Subject: NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 99, Issue 18


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> Today's Topics:

>

> 1. RE: 1950's N&W Steam excursions (NW Mailing List)

> 2. Re: basic interlocking signals (NW Mailing List)

> 3. 4-8-0s (WAS: Class M's, Mollies, class names and the like)

> (NW Mailing List)

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Message: 1

> Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 16:15:11 -0400

> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: RE: 1950's N&W Steam excursions

> To: "'NW Mailing List'" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Message-ID: <BLU0-SMTP1811E0EC0D03EC8A51290968E380 at phx.gbl>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

>

> A quick google comes up with this:

>

>

>

> http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mastodon/?page=nw

>

>

>

> I have no idea who Steve Llanso is, but in this article he claims the

> crews called them ?Mollies?

>

>

>

> From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org

> [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List

> Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 7:08 AM

> To: NW Mailing List

> Subject: Re: 1950's N&W Steam excursions

>

>

>

> As I understand it, steam locomotive wheel arrangements were given generic

> names; just as 2-8-2's were Mikados, but referred to as "Mikes," I believe

> the 4-8-0 wheel arrangement was named Mastodon and referred to as

> "Mollies." I have heard this term applied to this wheel arrangement many

> times but railfans, authors, etc.

>

> There is no doubt however, that on the N&W, they were simply referred to

> as M's.

>

>

>

> Jim Brewer

>

> Glenwood MD

>

>

>

> _____

>

> From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 5:07:58 PM

> Subject: Re: 1950's N&W Steam excursions

>

>

>

> Good for you, Jim. The use of the term ?mollie? sounds to me like one of

> those terms used by railfans to appear more ?hip?, like referring to a

> consist of diesels as a ?lashup?. That one makes my rump want to chew

> tobacco . . .

>

>

>

> Best -

>

>

>

> Ed

>

>

>

> From: NW Mailing List <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>

> Sent: Monday, September 09, 2013 2:37 PM

>

> To: NW Mailing List <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>

> Subject: Re: 1950's N&W Steam excursions

>

>

>

> In Bluefield, my father always called them "M"s. Don't know who called

> them "Mollies," but I am aware of an axiom: if anyone ever puts wrong

> information in print, that is the information that get's quoted (without

> attribution) forever. Which is why I do my best to identify errors, even

> when some people take it personally.

>

> Jim

>

>

>

>

>

> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 7:23 AM

> Subject: Re: 1950's N&W Steam excursions

>

>

>

>

> Hey Jim -

>

>

>

> I was around Bristol for the last few years of the small 4-8-0s, and I

> never heard anyone refer to them as Mollies. They were "M"s down there.

> Maybe that term applied elsewhere on the railroad, but the only folks I

> know of that called them "Mollies" were railfans years after they were

> gone . . .

>

>

>

> EdKing

>

>

>

> -----Original Message----- From: NW Mailing List

> Sent: Monday, September 09, 2013 4:03 AM

> To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

> Subject: 1950's N&W Steam excursions

>

>

>

> Does anyone have a list of steam excursions operated by N&W in the

> 1950's that show the dates, places and locomotives used?

> I'm currently working on some video with some of these trips but I

> don't know any details of them.

> For instance, I have footage of the following trips:

>

>

>

> A double headed run on the Abingdon branch where part of the train

> looks to be a work extra and part was the regular mixed with a couple

> of rider gondolas attached.

> Actually, the train wasn't a true double header in that the mixed,

> with it's Mollie, is coupled behind the work train which had a

> different Mollie on the point.

>

>

>

> Another excursion with a K1 and also carrying rider gons on the back.

> I think this one went to or from Bristol.

>

>

>

> The doubleheaded excursion from Bluefield to Norton with Pacifics.

>

>

>

> There are possibly others that I will find as I go through this film.

>

>

>

> Thanks for any assistance.

>

>

>

> -Jim Herron

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> ------------------------------

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> Message: 2

> Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 19:36:47 -0400

> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: Re: basic interlocking signals

> To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

> Message-ID: <201309102336.r8ANalv25333 at home.krunk.org>

>

>

> Jim Cochran:

>> In the first case (Figure 1) the blue train is eastbound ( to the right)

>> and there is no other traffic. The route is lined for him to hold the

>> main

>> through the interlocking. Are the aspects shown correctly?

>

> Yes.

>

>> If there is a train on the siding as shown in Figure 2, does it have any

>> effect on the signal aspects? My assumption is that it does not. Let me

>> know.

>

> Correct, no change in signal aspects.

>

>

> Joe Shaw

> Christiansburg, VA

> http://www.krunk.org/

>

>

> ------------------------------

>

> Message: 3

> Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 14:55:50 -0700

> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: 4-8-0s (WAS: Class M's, Mollies, class names and the like)

> To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Message-ID: <24211DC3-D609-4FE7-B99E-697BA094FEC9 at sbcglobal.net>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

>

> I believe that the SP was the other principal user of 4-8-0s in later

> days, not the UP (I don't remember seeing a pic of a UP 4-8-0). They

> ended up on the Oregon branch lines of the SP and lasted til quite late in

> the day. I think that the most popular "type name" for the 4-8-0 was

> "Twelve -Wheeler"; all the SP locos were in the "TW" classes, from the

> days when SP class designations were generally based on prevailing type

> names.

>

> BTW, 4-8-0s were very common on British colonial 42" gauge lines - South

> Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Lots of these are living on in

> preservation.

>

> pete groom

>

> On Sep 10, 2013, at 11:35 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> wrote:

>

>> Gentlemen:

>>

>> This a great discussion and when Jim added into the mix about the 2-8-2

>> wheel arrangement, I felt it was time to toss my hat into this ring.

>>

>> The various wheel arrangements while somewhat generic named were also

>> given the better known ones for very specific reasons:

>>

>> The 2-8-0's were called Consolidations simply because the first order or

>> large order was from a recent consolidation of railroad companies way

>> back when .. the late 1860's or 1870's or so.

>>

>> The 2-8-2's were called Mikado's because the first order went to the

>> Japanese Mikado I think it was in 1897.

>>

>> The first iconic order for the 4-6-2's went to MoPac, Missouri Pacific

>> which named them Pacific type, I believe around 1904.

>>

>> The what became ever-popular Mountain named 4-8-2 went to the C&O for

>> their mountain divisions in the coalfields and they named it accordingly.

>>

>> As for the 4-8-0's, not many roads had this wheel arrangement, with UP I

>> think and the N&W being the primary users and it received the name

>> Mastodon from who knows -- I've never read that one. They were always

>> Class "M's" as Ed and Jim have reminded us and that probably the nickname

>> Mollie probably got added later by parties now lost to history.

>> The N&W's famous Class J -- what did the N&W call those: Northern or

>> Class J? Same animal but local name. Kind of like trolley -- they were

>> called trams, streetcars (both one and two words), along with a few other

>> things as well as local names as well.

>>

>> Other wheel arrangements had been named similarly to the earlier ones

>> mentioned.

>>

>> Even the little used 2-4-2 type got a name "Columbia" I am told came from

>> its having been displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

>> in 1892-1893. Of course this small hauler was quickly over-shadowed by

>> larger power which rapidly eclipsed these little types.

>>

>> The 2-8-4's were named Berkshires as the Boston & Albany I think got the

>> first, those from Lima and their new Super-Power concept which really

>> took off. That was 1923-1925 or thereabouts.

>>

>> The 2-10--0's were called Decapods for their 10 drivers and some specific

>> ones which had been designated or ordered by the Russian Govt and never

>> delivered to the after WW1 Bolshevik's, became Russian Decapods.

>>

>> The 4-8-4's were first ordered by NP and became Northern's for most roads

>> but they did have other names as well, Lackawanna called theirs Poconos,

>> C&O called theirs Greenbriars and a number of others had names for theirs

>> as well. The NC&StL couldn't call theirs after any northern company or

>> name or anything from Yankee land, so theirs became something else more

>> fitting to their Southern traditions.

>>

>> I had never heard of the L&N's "Big Emma's" being called anything other

>> than that but I grew up with David P. Morgan and he called them that and

>> not the M1's as referred within these fine pages so perhaps DPM was a bit

>> guilt of that little change to historical reference.

>>

>> The 4-10-2's were called the SP type as they were the predominate user of

>> that little used wheel arrangement, never minding their 3rd cylinder.

>>

>> The 4-12-2 was similarly called the UP type for the same reason as the

>> SP, only the UP had that one, also with an inside 3rd cylinder.

>>

>> As NYC was the initial order-er for the 4-6-4 type, no surprise what

>> these were named for us romantics -- the Hudson type. Oh, what a shame

>> one of the Central's 4-6-4's was saved for us to ruminate over. However

>> that is for another day.

>>

>> The 4-6-0's I have always seen called "ten-wheel" types.

>>

>> And I suspect the first 2-10-2's went to the AT&SF although can't recall

>> details. The 2-10-4's were an outgrowth of the 2-10-2's as something

>> larger was required for a specific type of work load.

>>

>> One last one -- 2-8-8-4 -- the first order for those went to was it NP or

>> GN which needed this big hauler for out near the Yellowstone region and

>> so with their humongous firebox to burn that stuff they had on their road

>> which wasn't a whole lot better than improvised dirt (aka-lignite), the

>> first of these went there, along with their name. Somewhere I saw a

>> surmising that perhaps these would have been more powerful than the

>> Allegheny or Big Boy's if they had put good grade coal in one, but alas,

>> that answer awaits us all in that great roundhouse in the sky, someday.

>>

>> Bob Cohen

>> ________________________________________

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>

>

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