N&W J engines to Martinsburg, WV?

[NW Mailing List]

It has just occurred to me that maybe this is the reason that
Shenandoah Junction is still there.  When I've worked there, I
wondered why it was still there.  An alternative route in case of an
emergency does make a lot of sense.

Ben Blevins


On 1/4/14, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

> For how N&W moved it's passenger trains between Hagerstown and Shenandoah

> Jct when a derailment blocked the line:  This did happen in the summer of

> 1959 if my memory is correct.  A northbound freight derailed at Spielman's,

> between Antietam and Hagerstown.  Trains 1 & 2 were rerouted via Martinsburg

> to Shenandoah Jct.  However this was in the GP9 era.  The southbound train

> would need to be hauled backwards thru Martinsburg to be correctly oriented

> to head south at Shenandoah Jct and visa versa for the nb train.  My guess

> is B&O supplied power to do this.  In those days they kept power at

> Martinsburg for helpers and for serving the cement plant branch, or it would

> have been close enough to call a crew from Brunswick.

>

>  In the early 1950's a Y6 on a southbound freight derailed in the curve at

> Grimes when the outside rail turned over.  This was only about a mile south

> of Spielman.  The engine came close to rolling over.  In 1920 N&W train 1

> derailed north of Antietam station account hitting a horse. Newspaper

> documention of the event mentions trains being rerouted thru Martinsburg via

> PRR and B&O.

>

> The B&O connected with PRR (former CV) at two locations in Martinsburg:

> Cumbo, west of Martinsburg primarily for interchange of coal trains, and at

> the location in Martinsburg where the PRR line crossed over the B&O.  There

> was also a wye at this location.

>

> --Rick Morrison