[N&W] Re: What happened to N&W's steam designers?

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Bill,

The gentlemen from the steam era who were the designers of that power that I
interviewed and worked with to research my book, all worked into the diesel
era.  Their retirement generally were in the sixties and seventies.  As one
of these men reflected, he said it was a hard decision to cancel the steam
program because of the outstanding reservoir of personnel talent.

I suppose that they became experts in the operation and maintenance of
diesels since the N&W very professionally ran its diesel program.  As for
the shop forces that maintained the steam power, many were retrained to
maintain the diesels while others were moved to other types of work in the
railway.

Bud Jeffries

---- Original Message -----
From: "N&W Mailing List" <mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 8:52 PM
Subject: What happened to N&W's steam designers?

 > In general, what happened to N&W's steam locomotive designers and
 > builders?  Did they stay on and work on things like freight cars, or ???
 >
 > Bill Watkins
 >