PAGE 6
Sfiwi
NOVEMBER. 1958
A FACE-OF-AMERICA FEATURE
Time Almost Forgot
Mountain Railroad
When you ride The Virginia Creeper across the towering
summit of White Top Mountain, you can reach out from the tailgate
and gather an armload of clouds. If it’s spring or early summer,
there is plenty of flaming azalea and mountain laurel passing by.
And in the fall the ancient peaks blaze with the reds of maple and
sweet gums and the sombre gold of hickory and poplars.
Whatever your special interests, it’s worth the trip along the
55 mountainous miles of this time-forgotten railroad between
Abingdon, Va., and West Jefferson, N. C.
How did the pictures and story small spans over the deep ra-
on this page come about?
A few months ago some Fire
stone employees were overheard
re-living the old days of coal-
burning trains — wondering if
there were any that had not
made that final trip to the
roundhouse.
“I know there are a few op
erated as tourist attractions
only,” one of them said, “but
how about an honest - to - good
ness choo-choo train?”
AT THAT, news editor Claude
CaUaway and plant photograph
er Charles Clark did some re
search. A few weeks later, on a
morning this past summer they
were in Abingdon, boarding the
branch line of the Norfolk &
Western.
Then came disappointment.
The aging “M” engine, “Old
Smoky”, had been retired. Was
the trip worth it, now that a
gleaming diesel was pulling one
of America's few surviving
freight-passenger trains? They’d
see.
The trip began at 7:30. If all
went well, the train would ar
rive in West Jefferson at 11:15,
and the return trip would start
at 11:45, arriving back in Abing
don at 3:15 p.m. On this run, all
was according to schedule, al
though there seemed to be no
hurry.
The train (called The Virginia
Creeper by rail fans and tourists;
“The Peavine Special”, by folks
along the track) is officially the
N & W’s 201, and 202 (for the re
turn trip). Whatever it lacks in
space-age quality, the train
makes up for it in other ways.
IT WINDS through some of
the most picturesque country
side in Eastern America, much of
it inaccessible by road. All but
two of the 19 stations along the
way are flag stops—halting only
on signal to take on or let off
a passenger.
In its 55-mile run, the line
crosses 108 trestles, ranging from
vines to wooden structures more
than 600 feet long. There are no
tunnels.
Before the steam locomotive
was retired a few months ago,
the train’s low tractive power
(then 40,163 pounds) and the
steep grade of three per cent at
White Top, the maximum load it
could pull up White Top was 325
tons. Today the diesel can snake
350 tons. But even now, a big run
for the Creeper means an obser
vation flatcar, three or four box
cars, a combination mail, express
and baggage car, and a passenger
coach on the rear.
Every day but Sunday the
train runs, and twice a year it
operates a “special” for railroad
lovers.
ALTHOUGH the diesel some
what updates the Creeper,
there’s much remaining to sug
gest a forgotten age of railroad
ing lore. Officially, it stops at
two stations and 17 flag stops,
and there is a stop now and then
with the unexpected appearance
of a cow or maybe a stray deer.
Conductor J. C. Wohlford, in
Conduclor J. C. Wohlford at his "desk" on the
Creeper. Cigar box receives passengers' donations
for candy the crew gives children along the line.
Photographs are "souvenirs" of children who live
near the tracks and sometimes ride the train. A
guest book records names and addresses of
tourist passengers.
High school girls, riding to West Jefferson to
see a Saturday movie, examine one of the six
kerosene lamps in the time-mellowed coach.
his company’s service 47 years
wears “work clothes” instead of
the conventional blue uniform.
He tabulates waybills and does
other paperwork on one of the
green plush seats in the Vic
torian coach—cooled in summer
from the window breezes and
warmed in winter by two coal
stoves. In winter, when dark
ness lingers after the train starts
its run, six kerosene lamps glow
beneath the hatracks.
Brakemen sit in the coach
and chat with paying customers.
And the train may stop briefly
to allow a visit with villagers.
On the day the Firestone riders
were aboard, a farmer handed
the conductor a sugar-cured ham
at Green Cove; and further up
the line there was a stop to let
a man off for a day of trout
fishing.
CREW MEMBERS and folks
along the tracks are neighbors.
At Christmas, trainmen pool
money to buy food and clothing
for needy families. Every Satur
day they toss candy suckers to
every child they see along the
way. Conductor Wohlford, keep
ing alive the friendly tradition
begun by a predecessor, passes
out more than 200 loUipops each
week.
The year around, railroading
enthusiasts from almost every
state come for the ride. In the
conductor’s guest book, he count
ed some 300 tourists from 25
states in a two-month period
this summer. Some take pictures,
others make tape recordings—
and all of them look, especially
as the train toils up in view of
Mt. Rogers, Virginia’s highest
peak.
Organized in the 1890s, the
train became known as the Vir-
ginia-Carolina Railroad (hence
the V-C, then Virginia Creeper),
and extended its line until it
stretched 76 miles, to Elkland,
N. C. It came under N & W con
trol in 1905. As the lumbering
and mining industries grew, so
grew the Creeper. At one time
there were as many as seven
trains a day, two of them passen
ger runs.
In time, the timber was deplet
ed and freight service diminish
ed. The combination freight-
passenger made its first run in
the 1930s, and the Creeper has
been “mixed” ever since.
For generations, the train was
the only contact between a
wilderness area and the outside
world. Even today, it means just
that to some who live along its
line.
ON THE first 16 miles out of
Abingdon, the Creeper clips
along at almost 60 miles an hour.
But its pace is labored as it be
gins its way up White Top, cir
cling the mountain so often that
it crosses and re-crosses White
Top Creek 33 times in 13 miles.
At White Top station it reach
es an elevation of 3,577 feet. It
travels over ravines, nears cas
cading waterfalls, and at several
—Ends on page 7
0,
At White Top station the train reaches an Children come out of the villages and coves Weathered log houses near Creek Junction
elevation of 3,577 feet—^highest point attained io get their weekly treat of lollipops, tossed are evidence of surviving pioneer country
by a "mixed" train east of the Rockies.
from the coach platform.
along the way.
I
- S' , 'M
-Vi#
...;: ..
A youngster, on the way to visit his heated to drive the chill from the moun- Life is unhurried along the Creeper
grandmother in Taylor's Valley, looks at tain au:. line. Neighbors sit and visit on the sta-
one of the coal-burning stoves in the At West Jefferson, the last remaining tion platform at Damascus,
coach. On Ihis particular summer run, water tank along the line is relic of a Back in Abingdon after the 110-mile
the stove in the other end of the car was bygone era in railroading. run, the train takes the main line into
Bristol. A diesel replaced an aging coal-
burner several months ago. The smoking
"M" engine was retired to the round
house in Roanoke.