Mail transportation on the N&W Tug Fork Branch

[NW Mailing List]

 I too am interested in how any non - coal hopper traffic and how much of it was moved on branches mostly existing to service coal mines. 

I have a small O scale railroad that is loosely based on an N&W coal branch.  I always assumed that a boxcar of mining supplies or other freight would just be mixed in with the coal hoppers and brought up on a mine turn when needed.  

However I have many steam era boxcars and a 4-8-0.  I would love to a model a daily mixed freight on my coal branch.

Any further info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks is advance.
Tom Lewis,
Jax,FL 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sent: Thu, Oct 22, 2009 12:24 pm
Subject: Mail transportation on the N&W Tug Fork Branch










Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:55:20 -0400
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: N&W in 1910--Mail service

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
April 7, 1910

NEW MAIL SERVICE
------
Inaugurated on Tug Fork Branch of Norfolk and Western

The Norfolk and Western has inaugurated a new mail service on the Tug Fork 
branch.  Two mails a day now go to Anawalt and this service is greatly 
appreciated.  The people along the Anawalt section now want an opportunity to 
get the train to lay over at Pageton or Anawalt at night instead of at Gary as 
they figure in this way they will be able to go to Welch or some other point and 
return the same day.  An effort will also be made to get a local freight service 
on the line.  There are eighteen or twenty mines on the Tug Fork branch and the 
coal companies along the line feel that enough business goes to and from these 
operations to warrant a local freight.  It is likely that a petition will be 
prepared asking for such an extension of the local freight service.
------
[If there were no local freight service on Tug Fork branch how did these 
eighteen or so mines get the material for the tipples and mine material such as 
rails, cars, etc?  As far as that goes how did any mines get started before the 
railroad reached the mine location?]

Gordon Hamilton


October 23, 2009

Hello, Gordon:

Wasn't "local freight" service primarily for carload and less-than-carload 
merchanidise freight?  My recollection is that "mine runs" on the N&W were not 
considered local freight.

Regarding the mail service, the Railway Mail Service Third Division would have 
made a determination that mail volume and dispatches warranted mail being 
handled on a second train.  Although there were frequent communications between 
a railroad's manager of mail (who also usually handled the express company 
service relationships, too) and the district RMS staff, the added service would 
have been initiated by the RMS, not the N&W.

Good morning,

Frank Scheer
f_scheer at yahoo.com

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