Hookin' 'er up and The tale of the Buckland Brothers

[NW Mailing List]

Great first person stories like these need to be collected and put
into a volume. They are timeless and what the real historians like so
many who read these pages daily yearn for. Most of us NEVER had the
experiences written about but they live in our minds forever. They
read great whether they are N&W, C&O, SP, AT&SF or what have you.

Thanks for sharing, including all the details, why he ran it in the
corner, what he showed the RFE and especially the Link link, if you'll
pardon the pun.

Thanks again for taking the time and ...... keep 'em coming.

Bob Cohen


Today's Topics:

  1. RE: Buckland Brothers
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I'm sorry, tried to be brief and I got cryptic. Robert liked "fast"
and loved the Class A's, but both were hard to come by on the Pokey.
Mail (23/24) and passenger second sections ran 1200's for a limited
time around the holidays. He learned to run A's firing second 15 to
Williamson, take
his rest, and second 16 back to Bluefield with the same A. The only
regular runs 1200's made on the Pokey were the hot time freights 77/78
added in 1955, about the time he had enough seniority (engineer) to
hold them.

Both 77 and 78 stopped at Farm for servicing and 78 would take on a
pusher. Making time was priority on this run, so, by many accounts, a
pusher was added to an already short-tonnage train (A's were rated for
3000 tons on Elkhorn and 78 was usually less), but Mr. Buckland claims
he never took a pusher except for mechanical trouble. Another
"policy"(?) was to run up Elkhorn Grade with the reverse lever down in
the corner (slow, max power stroke), but he would hook the lever up
higher out of the corner for better performance, something he first
learned on 1400's. A fond memory was demonstrating this to a skeptical
Asst. Road Foreman of Engines.

On 78 in Williamson on "the night at the drive-in theater," he noticed
laborers wiping down the 1242 as he climbed in the cab, but had no idea Mr.
Link was waiting for him until the flash bulbs went off.

Grant Carpenter


Subject: Buckland Brothers

"L.W." Buckland is deceased, but I recently spoke with his brother
Robert, also an engineer in a family full of Pocahontas Division
engineers. L.W. first hired with the Pennsy for 2 years while the N&W
was not yet hiring enginemen. Robert hired on the N&W with a bridge
gang to stay in
Bluefield and became the first engineman hired ('42) since the hiring
freeze of '26, giving him seniority on the Division. Some of his
favorite runs were with 1200's on 77/78 and second 15/16.  He would
skip the pusher on 78 and hook the 1200 up higher to climb Elkhorn.
One night while running the 1242 on 78, as he past the drive-in at
Sandy Huff, "the whole countryside lit up
bright as day."

Grant Carpenter

He would skip the pusher on 78 and hook the 1200 up higher to climb Elkhorn.

Mr. Carpenter;
Thank you for your message about the Buckland brothers, L.W. and Robert.
Could you explain the above statement "Skip the pusher, and hook the 1200
up higher". I'm sure that it is railroad jargon?

Thank you;

Gene A.