End of N&W Passenger Service and the beginnings of Amtrak

[NW Mailing List]

I rode the last Hilltopper Roanoke-Catlettsburg-Roanoke. At Catlattesburg, the train ostensibly connected to the Cardinal although it was a many hour overnight connections (as I recall, the EB Cardinal arrived before the WB Hilltopper and then the EB Hilltopper departed before the WB Cardinal so both sets of connecting passengers spent several hours in the station.

There was a brief return of Amtrak service to N&W in July 1981 when Illinois subsidized an extension of a Chicago-Champaign train to Decatur (mostly on IC before turning west to Decatur at Tolono). That service lasted two years according to a Wikipedia article. It wasn’t on N&W very much but it was enough to make my Amtrak pass valid again (I left N&W just two months after the service started but did get a pass trip in due to the air traffic controllers strike that summer).

-- 
Larry Stone
lstone19 at stonejongleux.com





> On May 20, 2021, at 11:29 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the compliments Shawn, it is much appreciated. I am hoping to frequently have some bonus material for members only in the future.
> 
> Amtrak did not operate trains on any N&W trackage, except perhaps as a detour move until March 24, 1975, with the inauguration of the “Mountaineer” which was a Norfolk-Chicago daily train via the N&W to Kenova, the switched over to the C&O at Tri-State Station (Catlettsburg, KY), and continued to Cincinnati via the C&O, then on to Chicago.
> 
> The Mountaineer was never a success, and in 1976 was being considered for some schedule changes and reequipped with Amfleet cars. The drastic cold winter in Chicago in February 1977 caused many Amtrak steam-heated conventional cars to freeze up, and the Mountaineer was discontinued for a time, but returned with Amfleet equipment. 
> 
> It would be discontinued on May 31, 1977 and replaced with an Amfleet-equipped “Hilltopper” that ran from Washington DC to Catlettsburg, Kentucky. A train to nowhere, basically, was referred to as the “City of Nowhere” by some. On January 8, 1978, it was combined with the “Night Owl” and still ran to nowhere. It was discontinued on October 1, 1979 as part of budget cuts ending service on N&W lines until the inauguration of the Northeast Regional train on October 31, 2017 to Roanoke.
> 
> I might also put this in as a follow-up to the story in the next Arrow.
> 
> Best
> Ken Miller
> 
>> On May 20, 2021, at 10:57 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>> 
>> The latest "Arrow" is a gem, as they always are. What a great publication! I also enjoyed the bonus on-line material available to members.
>> 
>> After the end of N&W passenger service, I assume Amtrak continued to operate passenger trains on at least some N&W lines. The latest issue of "Trains" magazine indicates Amtrak operated a Cincinnati-Roanoke-Norfolk train, the Mountaineer, until 1977. The Hilltopper, a Cincinnati-Roanoke-Richmond, VA train, operated until 1979. Did these trains use the N&W line across southern Ohio between Cincinnati and Portsmouth? I lived near the "Peavine line" during this time, but never recall seeing an Amtrak train. Maybe I was just never trackside when they went through Batavia, OH where I lived. If they used the N&W across southern Ohio, does anyone know what their schedules were? Thanks
>> 
>> Shawn Harley
>> 
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