[N&W] Re: N&W M-433 [Last Operating History]

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

 >I have long been intrigued about the "recent" history of M-433. My questions
 >are fairly simple: Where did M-433 last operate?

As far as is known, Bristol Yard.

 >Where was the engine located immediately before being moved to Abingdon?

Bristol.

 >Some people in Abingdon think M-433 operated on the Abingdon Branch during
 >the last days of steam.  However, there is evidence to the contrary.
 >
 >Here are some facts.
 >
 >* M-433 has the small [14 tons of coal/3000 gallon of water] tender.

The 433 has a tender originally furnished behind a class K-2 4-8-2 Mountain 
type locomotive delivered in 1919.  The tender has a capacity of 10,000 
gallons of water.

 >* M-433 does not have a stack spark arrester, nor does it show evidence of
 >ever being equipped with one.

I don't recall - I'll have to search through my photos.

 >* A person who served as a fireman on the Abingdon Branch in the late 1940s
 >and early 1950s states that he does not recall M-433 in use during his
 >service.

I doubt if the 433 did operate there during that period.  It came to 
Bristol fairly late in the game - around 1953.

 >*None of Link's mid-1950s photos along the Abingdon Branch show M-433. [Mr.
 >Garver, Link's assistant, wrote in Steel, Steam and Stars, pp 129-130,
 >"Motive power on the line was limited to a Class M 4-8-0 (usually the 382,
 >396, or 429, all of which were outfitted with a heavily flanged
 >spark-arrester stack . . . the 495 was also used until it dropped its crown
 >sheet near Damascus in 1953) . . .".
 >
 >* As shown in Link's photos, engines 382, 396 and 429 all were equipped with
 >20 tons/12000 gallon tenders.
 >
 >It is not possible to say that M-433 NEVER ran on the Abingdon Branch.
 >However, it certainly appears that it did not operate on during the last
 >years before steam was discontinued in 1957.
 >
 >I would greatly appreciate any information that you or other NWHS members
 >might provide regarding M-433. In the meantime, I will continue the search
 >locally.
 >
 >Charles W. Seaver
 >NWHS Member

The 382, 429 and 495 were equipped with superheaters and were the preferred 
engines for use on the branch.  When the 495 was retired, that left only 
the 382 and 429 (of the two, the 382 was considered the better).  The 396 
was not superheated and crews hated to get it; it had the big tender, so 
was the third backup when the 382 and 429 weren't available.  The 433 is 
not equipped with a superheater.  Bristol briefly had another 
non-superheated M with a big tender, the 379.  I have a photo of it on the 
turntable there, and it has the flanged spark-arrestor stack, indicating 
that it, too, may have operated on the Branch.  But I have no first-hand 
knowledge of that.

In 1953 or 1954 I personally witnessed the 433 operating on the Abingdon 
Branch a couple of times as the third engine in a three-engine train.  The 
382 and 429 were on the head end.  Rock was being hauled for a highway 
project in North Carolina, so the third engine was cut in ahead of the 
coaches as a pusher.  At White Top, the 433 was cut out of the train and 
returned to Bristol backward, there being no place to turn it.  I have a 
couple of photos of the 433 on this run; one at Damascus and the other as 
it backed under the overhead bridge at White Top on its way back to 
Bristol.  They will appear in a book about the branch now being written.

To my knowledge, the 433 was dispatched as the second engine of a 
doubleheader but failed before it got to Abingdon; it was cut out of the 
train and hauled back to Bristol dead in the local freight.  I don't 
personally know of an instance where the 433 operated all the way to West 
Jefferson; it certainly was possible.  It did spend a lot of time switching 
on Bristol Yard.  But it did operate on the branch a couple of times that I 
do have personal knowledge - as far as White Top.

Ed King - NWHS Member