Green Cove

Fri Oct 4 15:04:22 EDT 2019

John – see below

From: NW Mailing List 
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2019 10:08 AM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
Subject: RE: Green Cove

Ed, Thanks for these recollections. Good to hear some details about these men that are mostly known as just faces in photos. Pls remind me as I lose track . . . have you published an article on the Abingdon Branch?

I had two Branch related stories in TRAINS Magazine.  I did a column for them from about 1996 to 2002 and one of them was entitled “Joe McNew and the 382”.  I also had a feature article a few years ago entitled “Travels with Earl”.

Wow. 57 years with the REA! What was his name please? Did he always work NW trains?      John Garner

His neame was Charles Earl Carper and he worked various routes finishing up his career on the Branch.  He ran into Washington DC and also Cincinnati.  There is a Link photo of him in the Link Museum, or there used to be.

P.S. Do you happen to know if the 382 number plate still exist? That’s the Holy Grail of the Abingdon Branch : ) 

Don’t have any knowledge about the 382 number plate.  I wish I had.

- Ed King

From: NW Mailing List [mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org] 
Sent: Friday, October 4, 2019 8:40 AM
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Green Cove

John - 

Nichols took the Abingdon Branch job after McNew retired.  I don’t think there was any appreciable difference as engineers was concerned.  They were both fast, and were not hard on their engines or firemen.  McNew had a ritual when he got a new extra fireman; he’d make it hard on the guy for the first week to see what he’d do, carrying too much water in the boiler and working the engine harder with the reverse lever; the second week, if the fireman passed the first week OK, McNew would work the engine with lower water and higher reverse lever and it was like a different job.  I have this from Hank Kinzel, who went to Bristol to work the fireman’s job for two weeks.  And, of course, Nichols was known for his special whistle.  The Abingdon Branch may have been the best freight engineer’s job on the Radford Division – all daylight work and Sundays off.  No young guys were seen on it.  The weight-on-drivers pay wasn’t great, but the other benefits outweighed that deficiency. 

An Express Messenger was not a railroad employee; he worked for the Railway Express Agency.  He worked in the express car (or in the case of the Branch the express end of the RPO/Express combine) and handled the packages, etc.  for the various stations.  My Grandfather worked for them for 57 years.

- Ed King

From: NW Mailing List 

Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2019 9:14 PM

To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 

Subject: RE: Green Cove

Thx Ed.

Nice! Those are treasured memories. I can relate having fond memories of trips over the Radford and Norfolk Divisions with my dad on the 101.

Can you speak of the differences between McNew and Nichols as engineers (hope my spelling is correct).

And what exactly is an Express Messenger?

I have a vague memory of a small NW magazine article about Sanders working on the Abingdon Branch (perhaps a certain Mr. Link could find that in the digital edition).

And if you can believe Wikipedia, it would seem he was employed on the Southern as well as numerous other roads. Seems he was quite the ‘rolling stone’.

John Garner

From: NW Mailing List [mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org] 
Sent: Thursday, October 3, 2019 6:15 PM
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Green Cove

John - 

I rode it as a freeloader.  My Grandfather was Express Messenger and I must have made 30 rides up there with him,.

I thought Sanders worked on the Southern.

- EdKing

From: NW Mailing List 

Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2019 4:47 PM

To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 

Subject: RE: Green Cove

Ed, Did you have opportunity to ride this line as an employee? Seems like I read that Colonel Harland David Sanders fired on that line when he was a young man.   John Garner

From: NW Mailing List [mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org] 
Sent: Thursday, October 3, 2019 3:18 PM
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Green Cove

Mighty good to see.

There is a short level stretch in front of the station in the nearly constant 3 Percent grade up to White Top.

Does anyone ride their bikes UP the mountain?

- Ed King

From: NW Mailing List 

Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2019 2:31 PM

To: NW Mailing List 

Subject: Green Cove

Beautiful day to be up at Green Cove. The station is ever popular with the bike riders coming down from White Top Station on the Creeper Trail.

Mike Pierry, Jr. 

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