Fusee/Torpedo Holders

[NW Mailing List]

Hello, Abram:

Here's a photo of the fusee, flag, coolant, and torpedo holder.  It is
precisely as you described it.  A Coke can is in the picture as a size
reference.  The second picture shows the embossed "N&W."  I wonder if these
were made in Roanoke.  I haven't seen a similar style on other railroads.

Best wishes,

Frank

Moderator:
 http://nwhs.org/mailinglist/2015/20151105.NW_Flag_holder_02.jpg
 http://nwhs.org/mailinglist/2015/20151105.NW_Flag_holder_06.jpg

Good catch on your part, Per'fesser.

Since you raised this topic, I've been meditating about where I may have
seen those things.  Obviously there should have been in every open Train
Order Office, and probably was at one time.  But the whole railroad ran
pretty much "by osmosis"... whatever habits and practices the employees had
picked up from the earlier generation, without regard to whether it was
right or wrong, good or bad.  As long as the trains made good time over the
Divisions, no one seemed to care about anything else.

My best memory is of the one at Martinsville, because I went through it !
I remember thinking how out-dated the fusees and torpedoes were--probably
close to fifty years old at the time.  Also I think I remember a
fusee/torpedo box at Abingdon. Not sure about the old and new stations at
Glade Spring.  There was not one at Payne, I am rather sure. You know, when
you are a very young and very uninformed person and seeing many new things
for the first time, you just don't know what to pay attention to.

The one at Martinsville was mounted on the south wall of the building, in
the Operator's Office.  I remember it was low enough that I didn't have to
use a chair to climb up and look in it... perhaps it was about eye-height.
It was red, and it had no lid.  The torpedoes were in a partitioned area on
the left (?) side, and the area may have been big enough to hold about a
dozen torpedoes.  The right side of the tray held fusees.  I do not
remember where the red flag was located... maybe it was on nails or hooks,
above or below the red torpedo/fusee tray.

Wish I could remember more... I was young and unobservant.

-- adb
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