End of N&W passenger service

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(After a couple of years of enjoying this mailing list despite not being a member of the HS, I realized I needed to help support the HS and joined. By doing so, I received the latest Arrow as part of my new member package so realize I have probably received it sooner than many of you).

In the article about the end of N&W passenger service, the question of what was the last passenger train out of Roanoke is mentioned. I’ve seen this question brought up before. There is the well documented trip of #4 (the Pocahontas) that left Cincinnati a little before midnight on 4/30/71 and passed through Roanoke on 5/1/71. But the there is mention that some people also claim there was a #18 (Bristol-Lynchburg and then on to Washington via the Southern) on 5/1. But as such a train would have originated in Bristol on 5/1, it should not have run.

What I suspect might have happened was the equipment the arrived in Bristol as #17 on 4/30 deadheaded to Lynchburg on 5/1 on #18’s schedule, possibly running as #18 but without passengers. Why? Almost certainly Southern needed the equipment in Lynchburg for their #18. As Southern did not join Amtrak, they still had to run their portion of #17 and #17 between Washington and Lynchburg. But on the morning of 5/1, there was no equipment in Lynchburg because #17 of 4/30 had run to Bristol. Starting 5/2 the equipment that arrived Lynchburg as the previous day’s #17 would be #18’s equipment but not on 5/1. And assuming Southern’s #17 and #18 still ran on the same schedule, Southern would still need two sets of equipments as the trains passed between Washington and Lynchburg. While I don’t have a 5/1/71 schedule, a 10/70 schedule I have has #17 departing Washington at 2:15pm and arriving Lynchburg at 6:10pm while #18 departed Lynchburg at 1:30pm and arrived Washington at 5:40pm. A 5/72 schedule had it running as #7 and #8 on a somewhat different schedule: 11:45am to 4:05pm southbound and 9:40am to 2:30pm northbound so still needing two sets of equipment. Regardless of what the actual 5/1/71 schedule was out of Lynchburg for Southern, they probably needed to get equipment there and Bristol, with equipment having arrived there that would never depart as a scheduled passenger train, was a good place for it to come from.

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Larry Stone
lstone19 at stonejongleux.com