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Norfolk & Western A History By E F Pat Striplin Soft Cover N&W
The Norfolk & Western A History By E F Pat Striplin
Soft Cover
Copyright 1981
396 Pages
Contents
Late Beginnings
Virginia 1830-1860
Aftermath of war
Short life of the AM&O
Frederick Kimball & Expansion
Shenandoah - Changing the gauge
Ohio Extension The Scioto Valley
Consolidation & War
Battle for efficiency
World War II, Robert H Smith
Motive Power
A new era begins
The Virginian
Big game hunting
The Nickel Plate
Conversations with the C&O
The seventies decade
Early days of the Cincinnati & Eastern
Index
There's an old saying that God gave us memory so that we can have roses in December. This book is a memory of sorts that allows the reader to look back at times when things were different. Company-sponsored histories have a well earned reputation for being dull as dishwater, however, so it is up to the reader to judge whether the roses of NW memory are worth this trip back in time.
This narrative had its beginning August 28, 1980, when NW Chairman John Fishwick assigned the writer the job of producing it in published form by September 30, 1981. To the complaint that 12 months was not enough time to do the job, the reply was 'Well, you have 13 months."
At the time, NW-Southern merger talks were underway. While there was no way of knowing what merger timetable might result, it seemed that this was an opportunity to produce a company history before the winds of the new merger movement scattered NW sources irreparably.
In addition, Mr. Fishwick called for a history that would be of interest to the average NW employee and friend. It would not be expressly for steam fans or rail fans, looking for oceans of locomotive or old-time passenger car photographs.
Finally, to make the narrative as interesting as possible, the Chairman suggested that a number of employees and former employees of NW be interviewed to highlight various aspects of NW history. Those whose recollections were included in the text were chosen because they were close at hand and available, and because they could throw some first-hand light on certain decisions.
Considerable effort has gone into assuring that the fleas and roaches of error have been eradicated.
However, any story that embraces 150 years of *history of several sizable railroads can probably defy the most murderous fumigation. Those that survive are my own.
Readers who took part in or are personally aware of various changes, incidents or happenings described in the narrative may feel that the real importance of these matters have been slighted or neglected. While there may be truth to such feelings, the writer pleads the necessity for taking an overall view of a long history which has the effect of diminishing the importance of many events that were exciting or seemed very important at the time they happened.
Throughout the research and writing, a constant question arose: how deeply into certain eras and phases of the history should the narrative dive? Many years, in fact decades, of NW history were without startling incidents beyond the everyday mishaps, errors and small upheavals that attend the work of any well-operated company. This lack of incident was remedied, awkwardly perhaps, by relating what the nation and the rail industry were doing, how national trends and events affected the NW. Again the reader must decide if this effort was worthwhile.
This book is far from being the work of one man. I am indebted to many, not least two long ago NW employees who are no longer with us: Frank Helvestine and Floyd Chabot. Helvestine, chief clerk to the Vice President of Valuation and Real Estate in 1923, was assigned the job of writing a series of articles on the early history of the NW. These pieces, which appeared from time to time in the NW Magazine over a period of two years, were of great help in writing the early chapters of this book. Chabot was named assistant editor of the Magazine in 1923 when the publication was begun. In 1936-37 he prepared notes and some narrative for a more complete history of the NW in connection with the upcoming 1938 100th anniversary of the company's beginnings. This project was later discarded when the Roanoke newspapers planned to cover the same ground. These notes of Chabot were donated to the Roanoke Transportation Museum in 1979 and were brought back to NW in 1980 as a major reference in the work on this volume. The combined work of Helvestine and Chabot saved the writer several months at least in the truncated time frame allowed to produce the narrative. Both Helvestine and Chabot had access to material which has been lost or is unavailable.
For continuing help throughout the project I am indebted especially to seven persons: John P. Fishwick, who ordered the work done, who was readily available for questions on a wide variety of matters, and whose pencil touched only seven lines scattered over four chapters of the book - no corporate writer could have asked for a freer hand; to Arthur S. Bixby, Sr., a premier authority on NW history and on motive power who guided the writer through many patches of quicksand and who always had suggestions on how some obscure point might be cleared up; to Lewis M. Phelps, NW Director of Public Relations and Advertising, for encouragement and many good suggestions on how the project might be pushed along; to Preston P. Dunavant, NW Assistant Chief Engineer, who reviewed reams of numbers and saved the narrative from many pratfalls; to Diane T. Gravely, secretary in NW's Public Relations and Advertising Department, who typed each word of the book at least once and many more than once; and to Betty H. Nappier and J. Donlan Piedmont, also of Public Rations and Advertising, who read each page of badly mangled copy and suggested much needed improvements as well, asking embarrassing questions at a time when they could be answered and fixed.
The following gave interviews, wrote letters or offered advice which I hope gives this narrative an authentic flavor that sets it apart from more arid histories: Lawrence T. Forbes, George D. Brooke, Stuart T. Saunders, Claude P. Blair, Hobart L. Scott, Sr., John P. Fishwick, Myron A. Decker, Jack D. Bailey, Walter E. Travis, Alan G. Dustin, Mrs. Harlow P. Davock, Norman F. Cuthriell, William D. Middleton, John A. Neikirk, Joseph R. Neikirk, Myron B. Phipps, Barbara Blankenship, Russell R. McDaniel.
Also Carlos P. Fletcher, Don E. Middleton and Joe Pakush, of the NW Secretary's Office, Waldo A. Turk, of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Leo Wolfe of the Library of Congress, Ms. Susan Talbott of the Smithsonian Institution, William B. Grumley, Jesse H. Gearhart, Jr., Ralph B. Cooper, Miss Anne Brooke, Mary C. Abbott, Tam P. Vannoy, Frank S. Brown, T. W. Saunders, Aubrey L. Overstreet, Jim W. Sutliff and Michael B. Bickham, and the staff of the Library of the Association of American Railroads, Washington, D. C.
While sources for each chapter are indicated, I am especially indebted to H. Reid's The Virginian, for the history of that road, to John A. Rehor and Taylor Hampton as sources for the short history on the Nickel Plate, and to Ralph Cooper and Arthur Bixby for Wabash material that makes up most of that chapter.
I am hopeful that this narrative may trigger some interest in the early history of the NW so that someone with more time can delve deeper into the subject and place it in better perspective with the times and changing goals and ideas that accompanied the growth of the company.
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