Yesterday in history

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 11:47:46 EST
From: GRHarper at aol.com
Subject: MARCH 25, 1975

Thirty years ago today, March 25, 1975,  Amtrak's
mandated two-year route-experiment train, The
Mountaineer, began revenue operation between  Norfolk,
VA and Chicago.  It ran combined with the "James
Will-it-Come"  Riley between Chicago and Russell, KY. 
 I still have my ticket receipts  for the round-trip
trip I took that day between Lynchburg and Farmville,
VA. 
 
After the two-year experiment was over, the train
lingered on for another two years at the insistence of
certain W VA politicians as The Hilltopper  
between Washington and Tri-State Station, KY.
It was probably the worst example of pork-barrel
passenger trains EVER and died, along with several
other trains in the system, on Sep 30, 1979, 
in the "Carter Massacre" . 

One of the agents assigned to Lynchburg was female and
quite attractive and charmed many, if not all, of the
male railfans that would frequent the N&W  
station on Woodall Rd. in Lynchburg.  She is still in
the Lynchburg area, married with three nearly grown
kids, and is still, to some degree, charming.



March 26, 2005

Hello, all:

I thought this reminiscence might be of interest to
some N&W folks.  During this era, the closest I got to
Amtrak while I was assigned to Decatur, Illinois, was
that I received a plastic card that was a railroad
employee pass.  It seems that at that time, if one
worked for a railroad over which Amtrak operated,
supervisory employees (I don't know about craft
employees) received an Amtrak pass.  It was to be
presented like a credit card at a station for issuing
a ticket.  It could be that the N&W was to reimburse
Amtrak for the value of the transportation.  Amtrak
travel was, I think, limited to the railroad that the
employee worked for, so that I could have only
traveled free between Norfolk, Cincinnati, or
intermediate points.

I never did understand how the Amtrak pass was
supposed to work and didn't have an opportunity to try
it out.  Does anyone else recall these Amtrak passes
or use it for travel on the Moutaineer or Hilltopper?

Best wishes,

Frank



Dr. Frank R. Scheer, Curator
Railway Mail Service Library, Inc.
f_scheer at yahoo.com
(202) 268-2121 - weekday office
(540) 837-9090 - weekend afternoons 
in the former N&W station on VA rte 723 
117 East Main Street 
Boyce  VA  22620-9639
 
Visit at http://www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org