Quality of Passenger Service on the N&W

[NW Mailing List]

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate hearing the stories. I always find it
amazing that there was a time, not so long ago, that you could ride a train
from just about anywhere in the country to almost anywhere else in the
country.

Mike Weeks
Greenville NC

On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 3:27 PM, NW Mailing List
<nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>wrote:


>  Mike,

>

> I rode N&W passenger trains numerous times in the early 1950's when service

> was still a matter of pride with the railroad and its employees.  I rode the

> *Pocahontas* and the *Powhatan Arrow* (equipped with the round-end

> observation car) on many trips between Bluefield, WV, and Berea College on

> the L&N in Kentucky (via Cincinnati).  Summers I rode N&W trains east of

> Bluefield to and from summer jobs that I had at several points on the N&W.

> Additionally, in that time period I rode N&W trains on the Clinch Valley

> line, the Durham line, the Bristol line and the Winston-Salem line, along

> with trips on the C&O and Southern.

>

> In addition to the *Powhatan Arrow's* observation car, the Arrow had a

> passenger service representative to look after passenger needs, and this

> person and the other crew members were friendly, professional and solicitous

> of the passengers' needs.  This was in contrast to a trip I had on a PRR

> train from Pittsburgh to Altoona in the same time period in which two

> boisterous crew members parked themselves in the lounge car where I was

> riding and proceeded to loudly and derisively ridicule the scenic attraction

> of Horseshoe Curve as we approached it.

>

> My experience with Amtrak is too limited to make a comparison between past

> N&W trains and Amtrak, but the N&W trains that I rode, and the tracks that

> they ran on, compared favorable with the other railroads' trains, and

> tracks, that I rode on.  The N&W trains generally ran on time.

>

> Considering track, one summer when I was working at the N&W's Durham, NC,

> shop (all steam then) a PRR clearance car, "porcupine car," laid over in the

> shop area after checking clearances from Lynchburg to Durham, and one of the

> PRR technicians manning the car told me that the N&W had better track on the

> Lynchburg-Durham branch line than anywhere on the PRR outside of the

> Washington-New York line (today's Northeast Corridor.

>

> I rode good C&O trains between Hinton, WV, in the east and Cincinnati, OH,

> or Lexington, KY in the west.  In fact, some frequent travelers in the

> Princeton/Bluefield area preferred to drive to Hinton to take a sleeper on

> the C&O to Cincinnati instead of a sleeper on the N&W out of Bluefield

> because they claimed that they could sleep better on the C&O's more gentle

> curves following New River than on the N&W's many curves following Tug

> River.  Personally, I did not find any problems riding coach class on the

> N&W along Tug River, even on overnight trains.

>

> Between Cincinnati and Berea I would ride the L&N's *Southland* or *

> Flamingo*.  The coaches on these trains were generally older L&N or Cof G

> heavy coaches that had been modernized with air conditioning and reclining

> seats.  The track was not quite so smooth as on the N&W, but the ride was

> not objectionable.  The modern N&W cars rode smoother and were less noisy.

>

> Gordon Hamilton

>

> ----- Original Message -----

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

> *To:* NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 25, 2010 6:56 PM

> *Subject:* Quality of Passenger Service on the N&W

>

> What was the quality of passenger service on N&W compared to Amtrak today?

> For example, did the trains run on time, were you treated well as a

> passenger?

>

> Mike Weeks

> Greenville NC

>

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