The Prototype

 Below are photos of the prototype, plus several stories from the region. Thanks to Doug Bess, Jr. for supplying most of these!

Growing up in the Kanawha valley

Just a short introduction here. The following has been contributed by a friend of mine F Douglas (Doug Bess) Jr., who grew up in the Kanawha valley. Doug has an extensive knowledge of the area, is a retired railroader with NS, and has an excellent website which I hope you’ll check out at: http://wvrails.net/

On February 2, 1948 I was born in Huntington, WV at St Mary’s Hospital. My dad was a student at Marshall College (now University) and Mom stayed at home. We lived in my paternal grandparents home until 1950 when Dad graduated with high honors. He had an engineering degree with a minor in chemistry. So his first job landed him in the chemical industry in the Kanawha Valley town of Nitro located 40 miles east of Huntington. The company he began with was General Chemical Company which was a part of Allied Chemical located in the chemical complex in Nitro. It specialized in industrial acids. Among other industries there was Monsanto, Ohio Apex and FMC.

When we moved to Nitro in 1950 I was two years old. Mom and Dad’s first house was a rental on 9th Street. It was owned then by the Nitro Industrial Corp. Even at two years old I was already interested in railroading. Our rental home was about a block and a half from a railroad that I had not seen before. In Huntington there was the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Baltimore & Ohio railroads and in nearby Kenova was the Norfolk & Western. The railroad I’m referring to is the New York Central.

As I was growing up in Nitro, a town itself rich in history, I began to realize more about the NYC and its operation in the Kanawha Valley. The yard in Nitro stretched along 1st Ave from about 20th Street to 38th Street approximately 0.7 mile. There were also leads into the various plants and switching leads on the north end of the yard for another 0.5 mile. In addition a passing siding was installed in later years sometime in the 1960s and is still in place today for Norfolk Southern.

There were a few businesses along 1st Ave that faced the tracks and as a little boy I enjoyed anytime my parents would go the Valley Bell to eat or when my dad would take me to the barber shop to get our haircut. I would watch for any train movements or even enjoy watching cars being switched in the yard. I remember the sound as cars were being “kicked” in the yard to a coupling. It was almost like an explosion. Many of the cars switched were tank cars but I assume as I look back today that they hopefully were empty.

Of course the Kanawha Valley hosted several other railroads besides the NYC but the most notable was the Chesapeake and Ohio. It ran on the opposite side of the Kanawha from Nitro and was a mainline operation compared to the NYC which was a branch operating from central Ohio. I enjoyed watching trains from the old depot in St. Albans. Besides the many coal trains that traversed this line, there was also manifest freights and passenger trains. The only daytime scheduled passenger train through St. Albans after 1962 was westbound Train #3, the Fast Flying Virginian. That train made its last run on May 12, 1968. St. Albans was also a junction for the Coal River branch which ran into the southern West Virginia coal fields. Coal trains coming off the branch could travel eastbound or westbound which made for an interesting operation.

Going back to the other side of the Kanawha, the NYC operated a small yard in Charleston about 15 miles east of Nitro, and another 15 miles east of Charleston was Dickinson Yard. Dickinson was a gathering point for coal from mines located beyond Gauley Bridge and Swiss on the old Nicholas Fayette and Greenbrier. The NF&G was a railroad jointly owned by the C&O and NYC.

Dickinson Yard was also a servicing point where locomotives were fueled and sanded. There was also a Wye for turning locomotive that exists today. During the 1960s, Norfolk and Western had trackage rights over the New York Central between Dickinson Yard and DB Tower which was 18 miles to the east of the yard at the point of navigation of the Kanawha River. DB (Deepwater Bridge) Tower was the western end of the former Virginian. The trackage rights were inherited as a result of the merger of the Virginian Railway into the N&W on December 1, 1959. N&W time freights #71 and #72 ran trackage rights on the NYC until sometime in 1968. Apparently there wasn’t enough traffic to continue operating these trains. I was fortunate to have seen and photographed the trackage rights operation while it still existed.

I mentioned the C&O and NYC. The B&O also had a branch line into Charleston along the Elk River, a tributary of the Kanawha but I did not see any trains on that line at least during daylight hours. Two short lines worth noting, the Kelley’s Creek and Northwestern out of Cedar Grove and the Winifrede Railroad at Winifrede Jct., which is located across the river from Dickinson Yard, were built to haul coal from mines they served to barge loading on the Kanawha River. The KC&NW was built a few years before New York Central predecessor Kanawha & Michigan Railroad built their line from Charleston to Gauley Bridge. Since the K&M was last to build through Cedar Grove, K&M trains had to stop at the crossing diamond in Cedar Grove for KC&NW trains moving to the barge loading facility on the Kanawha River. The Winifrede on the other hand ran under the C&O main line so there no issue there.

As a side note, it wasn’t until I was old enough to drive and get out on my own, with my parents’ permission of course, that I began taking photographs around the valley. I did not own a camera at the time but my dad graciously let me use his Graflex 35mm camera. He took time to show me how to use it. It was a challenge to take photos then compared to today’s digital cameras. The Graflex did not have a built-in light meter so Dad had purchased a separate light meter. After taking a reading on the meter you had to set the f-stop and shutter speed on the camera manually. Partly cloudy days made it hard sometimes to get a good photo with the sun peaking in and out of the clouds especially when a train was about to approach but most of the time I had good results.

In conclusion, as I look back, the Kanawha Valley was truly a great place to railfan in the years I lived there. You did not have to go great distances to see action around the valley. With chemical plants at Nitro, Institute, South Charleston, Belle and Alloy, and the C&O with its mainline and coal branches at St. Albans, Cabin Creek and Paint Creek and the short lines, there was no end as to what you could see and photograph.

F. Douglas (Doug) Bess, Jr.

Growing up in the Kanawha valley part 2

As mentioned in a previous article, the Kanawha Valley town of Nitro was a great place to live. The town almost resembled the fictional town of Mayberry on the Andy Griffith show in the respect that most everybody knew most everybody. Our next door neighbor for years organized a block party usually held around the Fourth of July. I helped my dad carry our picnic table down the street. We all cooked out on our grills. There were wonderful side dishes that my mom and other ladies prepared as well as great deserts. It was a time of fellowship with our neighbors that I will never forget. 

From a railfan standpoint, living in the Kanawha Valley enabled a railfan like myself to view mainline and branch line operations all within the confines of the valley. The Chesapeake & Ohio with its two track main paralleled the Kanawha River from west of St. Albans to Kanawha Falls which is located across the river from Gauley Bridge. Coal branches of the C&O joined the main at St. Albans, Cabin Creek and Paint Creek. Coal trains could run east to Newport News, or west and eventually north to Toledo.

The mainline operation of the C&O was quite impressive, however the branch line operation of the New York Central had a uniqueness of its own. Constructed around the mid 1880’s, approximately 10 years after the C&O had built through the area on the west side of the Kanawha, NYC predecessor, Kanawha & Ohio (later Kanawha & Michigan) built on the east side of the river from Pt. Pleasant to Charleston initially. Later the line was extended to Gauley Bridge with the acquisition of the Charleston and Gauley Bridge. This is where the New and Gauley rivers converge to form the Kanawha River.

As I got to know the different railroads that existed during the years, I was impressed that a railroad with the prestige of the New York Central would have a rail line serving West Virginia. Even though it was a branch line, the NYC was fortunate to have most of the chemical plants in the valley located on its line. Besides the ones mentioned in the previous article located in Nitro, there was Union Carbide’s plant at Institute and another facility at North Charleston, DuPont plant at Belle east of Charleston, and Union Carbide Metals plant at Alloy.

After graduating from Nitro High School in 1966, I returned back to Huntington to attend Marshall University. My paternal grandparents lived in the city and I stayed with them during my years at MU. I was very close to them as I lived in their home for the first two years of my life. Also I would spend a couple of weeks with them in the summers.

During the period I was attending Marshall from 1966 to 1970, the Vietnam War was going on. Like every guy who turned 18, I had to register for the draft. The Draft Board in Charleston was after me beginning around 1968. To make a long story short, I was able to remain in school until June, 1970 when I got my notice to report to the Draft Board to be inducted into the Army. I was majoring in civil engineering but was not taking the full load of classes necessary to finish in four years even though I was a full time student.

After being drafted, I enlisted in order to try to avoid going to Vietnam. I did put in for Germany and thankfully ended up serving there from December, 1970 to March, 1972. Normally I would have been there for another 18 months beyond March, 1972 but I was able to secure an early release from active duty. The stipulation to the early release was that I had to serve the remainder of my enlistment in a local National Guard unit which I did.

After the early release, I was able to return to Marshall in the fall of 1972 and finish up my requirements for obtaining my degree in civil engineering the following year. Also by that time my enlistment in the guard was completed.

Near the end of my last year at Marshall, I began looking around for employment. There was no doubt in my mind that I desired to work for a railroad in the area. The first choice was the C&O. Unfortunately they were not hiring. I applied with the N&W but they turned down my application. Penn Central was not considered since they filed for bankruptcy two years earlier.

Then I started looking outside of the area. Southern Railway came to mind. I didn’t know much about the company then, but I have seen many adds in magazines like Trains. I filled out an application and mailed it in. Before long, a letter came in the mail offering a position with the company. Southern, at that time, was looking for civil engineering graduates to fill the role of Track Supervisor. The training program was designed to be completed in a year’s time which by then the trainee would move to a track supervisor position.

Accepting the position meant that I would be moving from my home area. It was sad but also at the same time exciting to work for a company that was finding innovative ways to run a railroad. So in September, 1973, I moved to Valdosta, GA and began my training.

I learned quite a bit about the various facets of maintaining track during my year in the program, but in the back of my mind I was desiring to use my civil engineering training. I notified my training coordinator of the desire to work in the bridge department which was located in Atlanta. He arranged for an interview with the Chief Engineer Bridges. While there I visited the office and talked to the various engineers about their work. Returning to Valdosta that day, I did not know if a position would open up in the department. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I would become a track supervisor somewhere on the system and that was ok.

A little time had passed and then I was notified that a position had opened up in the bridge department and was asked if I was still interested. Of course I jumped right on it. So in September, 1974, I moved to the Atlanta area and began working there. The bridge department of Southern was not only responsible for bridges, but also tunnels, culvert structures, stations and roadway signs.

June 1, 1982, was an eventful day as Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western merged to form Norfolk Southern Corporation. Not all departments were consolidated at the time of the merger. Only the sales departments of both roads were combined on day one. Other departments such as the operating, mechanical, communications and signals were consolidated one at a time. Some of the mentioned departments were combined either in Norfolk, Roanoke or Atlanta. On June 1, 1986, the engineering departments of both roads were the last to be combined. Atlanta was designated to be the headquarters. It certainly was in some respects an exciting time but also a time of getting things organized and working as one department. Both roads had different systems of filing bridge plans, correspondence files, etc. These were resolved as the years went by.

One area that I got involved in was the standardization of roadway signs. I was assigned the duty of drawing up and specifying standards for NS. Many Southern signs such as the milepost sign were oval shaped with numbers positioned horizontally while the N&W used a rectangular shaped sign with a vertical orientation and numbers. For whistle post signs, Southern used a vertical sign with two black horizontal dashes followed by dot then another black dash, while the N&W used the keystone “W” which is an influence from the days the N&W was partially controlled by the Pennsylvania RR. In short the sign standards for NS are of the shapes most commonly produced by sign manufactures today.

While it was tempting to specify Southern style signs, I knew it wouldn’t fly. However I was able to preserve a piece of Southern heritage with the station (or control point) signs. Southern used white lettering on a green background and management approved that standard for NS.

June 1, 1999 was another eventful day as NS began to operate its portion of Conrail. While this was a different type of consolidation, there were many challenges similar to that of the merger of Southern and N&W. One challenge for me was converting the Conrail bridge database to the NS database. It took a lot of coordination with the IT Dept to get it done.

Norfolk Southern announced in September, 2003 that it was offering a buyout/retirement option. I struggled with the decision for many days but after praying and considering the options, I accepted the offer and I retired effective November 1, 2003. After a few months I began working for engineering firm Ralph Whitehead and Associates (later STV/RWA). By the end of 2016 I decided to retire fully.

I’m truly thankful to have been a part of the rail industry. It was a dream come true.

The above part two of growing up in the Kanawha Valley was also written by good friend F. Douglas (Doug) Bess, Jr. of his career and recollections of the railroads in the Kanawha Valley….

Memories of my Dad working for Union Carbide

As I mentioned in my post on Growing Up in the Kanawha Valley my dad, Doug Bess, Sr., graduated from Marshall in 1950 with honors majoring in engineering with a minor in chemistry. Marshall did not offer a degree in chemical engineering then nor does it today but essentially he was a Chemical Engineer.

Dad began working for General Chemical in 1950 and we moved to Nitro about the same time. It was a small operation as I remember. Sometimes he would take me to work but usually after office hours. I remember the company had a fence around the plant with a gate that was controlled by a push button control box inside the premises. When we were ready to leave, Dad would park the car outside the gate then go back and push the button to close the gate then make a run for it before the gate completely closed. I did it with him a few times and it was fun.

Then in October, 1952, Dad began working for Union Carbide at their Institute Plant. This was the beginning of a long career that would take him to other Carbide facilities in the valley and eventually Carbide’s headquarters in Danbury, CT where he worked a couple of years before retiring in 1986.

The Institute Plant was located about six miles from our home and was about five miles east of downtown Nitro along the east side of the Kanawha River and was served by the New York Central Railroad. The plant was built in 1943 by the government to produce synthetic rubber for the war effort. Carbide purchased the 450 acre site in 1947 and began producing chemicals and plastics for the consumer products industry such as Prestone Antifreeze, EverReady Batteries, Glad Bags and other products. The fact that potentially dangerous chemicals were being produced prevented entry into the plant except by employees. That was disappointing to me at the time but later I understood why. One time the company did conduct an open house for employees’ families and I think that helped to make us feel a part of Carbide.

Plants located up and down the Kanawha River for many years allowed waste from chemical and other processes to go directly into the river without being treated. Carbide was no different. Cities and towns throughout the valley I’m sure had concerns about the quality of their water supply especially if the water company’s intakes were located downstream from one of the plants. Carbide began plans to construct a waste treatment facility that would be located just west of the main plant and my dad was tapped to manage the construction and operation of the facility. Since it was outside the main plant, I was able to go with Dad to the facility and enjoy seeing any trains that would go by on the NYC line that was adjacent.

Some years after the plant was well underway, Dad was transferred to Carbide’s Research and Technical Center in South Charleston which was known simply as the Tech Center. By this time he became involved more with Federal and State regulations concerning air and water pollution and how it affected Carbide’s efforts to conform to the standards. Sometime later his office was relocated to Carbide’s office building along McCorkle Ave in South Charleston which was located across the street from the South Charleston Plant. The office building was known as Building 82 and was nine stories high. Besides offices it also housed a small department store for employees and families. As a side note the South Charleston Plant was served by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

In conclusion my dad had a very successful career with Union Carbide and I am proud of his service. Carbide at one time during the 1950s and 60s was the largest employer in the Kanawha Valley. As the saying went back then, it was hard to come in contact with someone who did not work for or had family members not associated with Union Carbide.

F. Douglas (Doug) Bess, Jr.

The transfer caboose....

Sometimes research and fact-finding for an article/story is harder than pulling teeth. Such was the case with finding information for this short story. Penn Central transfer cabooses, as with most railroad’s transfer cabooses, were used primarily for yard to yard transfers and short switching runs, especially runs where numerous back-up moves would be made. Thus the reason for the large “porches” at either end. Carrying just one desk and one bunk, they weren’t constructed for long freight runs.

New York Central originally constructed 189 transfer cabooses starting in March 1966 using 1942-1946 era 40″ boxcar frames with welded bodies attached. A second lot was built in 1967. NYC classified these as N6A. These cabooses originally had roofwalks and ladders, and in some photos in research it appears that some had wooden decks.

Penn Central then constructed the first of their transfer cabooses starting in 1968-1969 at Despatch Shops in upstate New York. Classified as N9 and N9E, a total of 140 were built. These were built at first with two 100 pound propane tanks at one end for heat, no roofwalks, nor ladders. Some photos, in fact many, show a small roof overhang over the end doors, and what looks like a “rain guard” over the propane tanks. The N9E class and N11E class had 6v electrical systems, hence the “E” designation.

Photos around the Kanawha Secondary

Penn Central starting in 1969 through 1970 constructed 75 class N11 and 75 class N11E transfer cabooses, again at Despatch Shops. These cabooses were the last PC built. These classes had a wider platform step, no roof overhang, simpler handrails, and were only 32″ in length, but carried the same dimension body for the crew.

As far as research can determine, except for wrecked cabooses, all NYC transfer cabooses made in into Penn Central, and all PC built units made it into ConRail. A few of these classes are preserved today.