1958 - Steam Era Moves Closer to Oblivion

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Roanoke Times - January 3, 1958

Steam Era Moves Closer to Oblivion

Bristol-Roanoke Run Dieselized

  The steam era of railroading moved a step closer to oblivion last night.
  It was a quiet, unspectacular event. Steam locomotive 609, a Class 
J 4-8-4 engine, the last steam engine to pull a train on the 
Bristol-Roanoke line, pulled N&W Train No. 10 into the passenger 
station here at 6:08 p.m. - seven minutes ahead of schedule.
   The regularly assigned workmen were there to uncouple the big 
engine for the last time, as was the stationmaster. A few 
photographers recorded the arrival, but otherwise there was no 
interest in the event.
   Engineer J. W. Woolwine had nothing to say but "Hello". He took 
the engine to the Shaffer's Crossing roundhouse, as he always does on 
that run, and went home.
   The decision to dieselize the Roanoke-Bristol line was announced 
at the end of 1957. It is the lates(t) move in a dieselization plan 
announced more than a year ago.
   Close behind the last of steam for that segment of the railroad 
came the first four of 30 diesels the Norfolk and Western is leasing 
from the Pennsylvania Railroad.
   They were delivered in Roanoke at 9:40 p.m., from Hagerstown, Md. 
The N&W said they will be leased for some three to four months until 
30 diesel locomotives ordered from manufacturers are delivered.
   The diesels are similar to those now operated by the N&W on its 
Shenandoah, Winston-Salem and Cincinnati divisions as well as the 
lines from Lynchburg to Durham. They are 1,750 horsepower general 
purpose engines.
   Stationmaster Herman O. Akers said the four Pennsy diesels pulled 
by an N&W diesel, differed in that they had single controls, operated 
by the engineer only, rather than the dual controls - a set for the 
engineer and another for the fireman - that are standard for N&W diesels.
   Engine 609 - one of the most powerful steam locomotives ever 
produced - will probably not fade away in the foreseeable future.
   There will be work for the locomotive either on the N&W main line 
- Norfolk to Columbus Ohio - or in one of the numerous branch lines 
from the coal fields or scattered runs throughout the N&W system. 
These have not yet been dieselized.

[Article includes a dark night shot of 609, engineer side, looking 
towards cab. With description "Engineer J. W. Woolwine and Firemen S. 
R. Patterson Bring in 609"]

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link