N&W in 1903 - Wheels

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WILL NOT PURCHASE CAR WHEEL FACTORY
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Newspaper Story Denied by Norfolk and Western Officials
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    Roanoke, VA., April 18 -- The Salem Times Register yesterday printed the following:
    "We learn from reliable sources that the Norfolk & Western railway company has just closed negotiations for the purchase of a large car wheel factory at Birmingham, Ala., which will be brought to Roanoke and located in the extreme west end of the yard in this city.  The cash payment of $65,000 [?? blurred] on the plant was made yesterday, and the removal will be speedily made.  Its capacity is enormous and will afford employment for 1,000 men.  The Norfolk and Western is doing a great work for this section, and its liberal policy in improvements and enterprises is spreading prosperity all along its lines.
    The above is denied by General Manager Johnson [Lucius E. Johnson became president the following year.], but he admits that a large consignment of 500 [?? blurred] unfinished cars are being brought from Anniston, Ala., to Roanoke to be completed in the shops here.  The road is spending some three-quarters of a million dollars and has recently made some big land purchases in the west end.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
April 19, 1903

[At some point the N&W started producing cast iron freight car wheels in the Roanoke Shops Foundry, but production of this product probably did not last beyond the 1920's for a couple of reasons.  (1) Freight car wheel production can carry a huge liability if a bad derailment is determined to have been caused by a wheel that failed because of some manufacturing defect, such as a non-metallic inclusion.  (2) The N&W was an early user of the stronger wrought steel wheels.  I am attaching a photo of a wheelset that has been made into a bench on the Rail Walk that connects Downtown Roanoke (and the Link Museum) to the Virginia Museum of Transportation.  The outside wheel plates of both wheels are clearly marked with the brand "ROANOKE, VA" and the inside plate of one wheel  is marked "N & W  2/21/17."  Cast iron wheels were outlawed in interchange service by the 1960's.  Where has this 1917 vintage wheelset been since it was outlawed?  Incidentally, most freight car wheels used in North America today are cast steel.]

Gordon Hamilton
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