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Norfolk & Western Diesel’s Last Conquest by William E. Warden 1991 Soft Cover
Norfolk & Western Diesels Last Conquest by William E. Warden
Soft Cover
Copyright 1991
Soft Cover
62 Pages
That the Norfolk & Western Railway was the last holdout of steam-in 1954 every freight and passenger train, every yard movement, was powered by the force of expanding vaporized water on piston surfaces-cannot be questioned. Nor can the fact that by 1960, after what the May 1960 issue of Trains characterized as "N&W's...forced-draft die-selization program," N&W train movements were 100 percent behind diesels.
This book is not about diesels as such-others have detailed the specifications and abilities of RS-3s and 11 s, T-6 switchers, and GP-9s and 18s down to the last rivet-but rather how the N&W's die-selization was accomplished and why it was accomplished when it was. Norfolk & Western Train Watchers in the mid-1950s were understandably dismayed by watching their pet 2-8-8-2s, 2-6-6-4s, 4-8-4s, and 0-8-Os disappears like Winter snows on a warm Spring day and they deserve a concise and balanced rationale for the N&W abandoning steam. The author has attempted within these pages to provide that rationale.
For a book of this size to record the whole story of dieselization, certain constraints have been applied. Consequently, the story being told is of all diesels, whether owned, borrowed, or just passing through that ran on N&W tracks up to the time of the final GP-18 delivery, at which point, for all intents and purposes, the Railway's dieselization was complete. A brief nod to newer diesels is also given, however. Former Virginian Railway diesels are omitted as they have been treated adequately in other books, most notably in H. Reid's The Virginian Railway, and because the Virginian's diesels seldom saw service on post-1959 N&W tracks.
With respect to dieselization, the Railway continued the policy it had long followed with its justly-famous steam locomotives of settling on a few standard designs that could meet the requirements of almost every division.
Interestingly, N&W dieselization coincided with the transition of diesels from high-powered specialty items that operated in more-or-less fixed combinations-EMD's E- and F- class diesels block "units" that could be hooked together in any manner considered suitable, and in any number the road foreman of engines deemed appropriate to get a train of "X" tons over a ruling grade of "Y" percent in "Z" minutes. And the only features that might differentiate passenger and freight units were traction motor gear ratios and-sometimes-paint scheme.
If a railroad book may be said to have a hero and a villain, this one has President R. H. ("Race Horse") Smith who agonized over acquisition of the first diesels, and Stuart T. Saunders who presided over the final dismantling of the N&W's steam fleet. Which man fills which role will be left up to the reader to decide.
So sit back and relax now while we see how a railroad long famous for its devotion to "Super Power" steam reluctantly bit the bullet of dieseldom and switched from the products of its own Roanoke Shops to those of Schenectady and LaGrange.
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