This is interesting: Someone out of the domain historyfactory.com was looking for information on Herman Pevler. Of course, they found his name in my post on John Palmer Fishwick.

I wonder what for, eh? History Factory, in their own words, "is a heritage management firm that helps organizations discover, preserve and leverage their history to meet today's business challenges." That's certainly not something you see every day, but I think it sounds like a valuable business concern. After all, the corporate form is designed to outlive any stockholder or director; such a longevity will create a history of great highs (and embarrassing lows) which would prove valuable in a public relations campaign. Just quickly breezing through their site, it looks like they're an interesting place to work for; if that's a proper impression, I might even like to give it a go.

It appears that this blog is number three in Google for the relevant search string. This blog also has the distinction of being the first one on the topic of the N&W's former president. There seem to be other mentions of a Herman Pevler who was around at the time, but I can't confirm any links between the N&W man and the man who collected advertising awards. In all likelihood, the surfer was looking for the latter man, and not the man who fell victim to a Fish(wick).

Interesting.

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Speaking of RMS Titanic, today is 14 April. Ninety-two years ago today, Titanic was somewhere near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, headed for the city of New York. She's four days out of Southampton and is expected to arrive on 16 April 1912, at the White Star Line's berths in the new Chelsea Piers complex.

Of course, she does not complete this voyage, as she strikes an iceberg at roughly 11:41 P.M. local time. The reported speed of the ship was 22.5 knots when lookout Frederick Fleet calls the bridge to report a sighted iceberg.

James Cameron's 1997 motion picture is probably as good a visual reference as any for the resulting events; suffice it to say that Titanic never had a chance, for a variety of reasons.

One site I used for background was Lost Liners. In addition to Titanic, it covers a number of other significant maritime passenger vessels, and is rather well put together.

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I previously wrote about the first Y6b to leave the N&W's Roanoke shops; now let me close that particular chapter with this:

On 14 April 1952, the last Y6b, #2200, left the Roanoke shops. See the earlier entry for more details on the Y6b class of locomotives.

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I promised to keep abreast of the wreck of The City of New Orleans, and I've now got an update to pass along:

Cause of the wreck of the City of New Orleans, Train 58(06APR) is
believed to be a 2 1/2 inch piece of rail that was added to the east
rail (engineer's side) during January 2004 to replace a section with
a crushed rail head. Under changes in temperature, compressive
forces in that rail combined with poor condition of ties caused that
rail to roll outward under train.

Engine 82: $50,000
Baggage 1223: $55,000
Sleeping Car 32036: $2,000,000
Dining Car 38009: $2,000,000
Lounge Car 33013: $700,000
Coach/Smoking 31592: $700,000
Coach 34069: $650,000
Coach 34087: $350,000
Sleeping Car 32005: $215,000
Coach 34135: $176,000

It is unlikely that the first five Superliners will ever return to
service.

I do not know the truth of this information, but it seems consistent with initial reports. Additional analysis from the same source:

Sometime before January of this year, a piece of rail was crushed (the railhead) and then in January it was repaired. The repair was just a patch job, they probably cut about a 2 inch section out and either welded a new piece in or bolted it in as a joint. Unsure if they used a cutting torch to do this, as that would destroy the tensile strength of the rail and cause a derailment (which is exactly what happened on the [Missouri Pacific] about 20 years ago....derailed the Texas Eagle in Woodlawn, TX...five minutes from my house). Regardless, the fact that it was just a patch job mixed with either rotted or just old wooden ties was not good for the City of New Orleans. What they suspect happened is that once the train it that section (doing somewhere around 70MPH) either the patch came loose or the spikes gave out, causing the rail to "roll" outward under the train. The rail in question was on the engineer's side, explaining why the Superliners fell in that direction.

Oh, bother. This places the blame solely upon Canadian National, because their people either didn't repair the rails properly, or they didn't come back to implement a permanent fix. Given Amtrak's poor financial state, I'm curious as to what will be done about the five wrecked Superliners. Those cars will need to be replaced; simply going on without them is probably not an option. After all, you can't carry passengers---I know Amtrak's a little short on ridership from time to time---if you haven't the coaches. David Gunn has repeatedly harped on the fact that one of his priorities is getting equipment back into service, and he's spent scarce capital to do so. This accident sets their program back a fair amount, and it's distinctly unwelcome news.

I am, of course, irritated with the CN maintenance of way and financial managers who didn't have the rails in a good state of repair. Further information will be reported when available.

UPDATE: Photographs purportedly taken at the wreck site are located here. The third and fifth pictures demonstrate most clearly damage to the rail, and would perhaps suggest that the failure of the actual rail itself was the cause for the derailment.

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On this day in 1948, the Norfolk & Western Railway's first Y6b locomotive, #2171, departed the Roanoke Shops for road service.

The 2-8-8-2 Y6b was a monster locomotive, weighing in at about 582,900 pounds; adding the (presumably full of coal and water) tender¹ took the figure to 961,500 pounds. With a weight like that, one doesn't casually go hopping from somewhere in Connecticut to Penn Station in the city of New York for the morning commute.

Instead, these locomotives were used for low-to-moderate speed service pushing or pulling long drags of coal cars headed to Norfolk from out of Southwest Virginia and West Virginia, our rogue province. Coal traffic had the advantage of being distinctly non-perishable, so timekeeping wasn't so much of a virtue. More important was the ability to carry a lot of coal at a steady pace, and the design of the Y6b reflected that.

The Y6b can easily be mentioned in the same breath as the Allegheny 2-6-6-6 type used by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and the Virginian Railway, and the Big Boy 4-8-8-4 used by the Union Pacific Railroad. All three types constitute essentially the giants of American steam motive power, huge coal-fired monsters that shook rails and the ground around them every time they passed.

Y6a #2156 survives today at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri, but no other Y series survived the scrapper's torch. Kim Thurlow suggests that the last surviving Y6b locomotives met the torch in a Roanoke, Virginia scrapyard in 1976. Wouldn't surprise me. more...

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I admit it: I like at some level the work that NPR (more accurately various program-producing member stations) does. It's useful information, and it's reliably biased, so you know how to take it. Devil you know and all that. The recently-fired Bob Edwards could report on Presidents Clinton and Bush saving a child, and Clinton would be hailed as a valiant saint for saving that lone kid while thousands others died; conversely, George W. Bush would be excoriated for failure to save them all even if he only missed one.

That being said, NPR's member stations are occasionally useful for something other than entertainment, and today I've found something of value. A program dubbed Radio Times (of which I have never heard) recently interviewed the head of Amtrak, David L. Gunn, and has posted the audio of same on the World Wide Web for all to hear.

I'm not sure how long it is and I haven't listened yet, but it was passed on to me as being a good interview. Without further adieu, click here for the goods. It's a *.ram file, so you'll need one of those cursed RealAudio players.

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08 April 1970: John Palmer Fishwick (1916-) is elected to serve as the tenth president of the Norfolk & Western Railway.

Fishwick succeeded Herman H. Pevler as president. Pevler, a former senior officer of the Wabash (leased by the N&W on 16 October 1964), is most famous to me as being responsible for the introduction of the blue livery with Dulux lettering. Mr. Fishwick is famous also for introducing the overall black livery with white "NW" lettering.

A Pennsylvania Railroad history site notes that Fishwick engineered a coup against Pevler, after Pevler suggested that a Chesapeake & Ohio man would become head of the combined C&O/N&W. Fishwick, having engineered the merger in the first place---check this with Richard Saunders' Merging Lines ---was not impressed, and thus got Pevler booted to the position of "Chairman", supposedly a meaningless promotion.

Of course, with the debacle occurring in the Northeast with the Penn Central, the C&O/N&W merger would be called off by the respective companies. C&O President Gregory S. Devine and Fishwick would announce this on 19 March 1971. Interestingly enough, Devine would retire as President within two weeks, replaced by the man who would make the Chessie System (and later CSX) a reality, Hays T. Watkins, Jr.

Fishwick would serve as President of the Norfolk & Western throughout the tumultuous 1970s, being replaced by Robert B. Claytor in September of 1981. Claytor would be the last president of the N&W and the first president of the newly-created Norfolk Southern.

Congratulations (albeit 34 years later) to J.P. Fishwick, and thank you for your service.

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Amtrak train #58, the northbound City of New Orleans, has derailed 25 miles north of Jackson City, Mississippi.

CNN's report indicates that a single passenger, a 68-year-old woman, has died and that there are 60 injured. Amtrak's press release states that four people were admitted to local hospitals.

Before we go any further, let me raise a flag in defense of Amtrak. I am almost certain that there will be some in the blogosphere who will immediately harangue Amtrak for this accident, and demand that it be put out of business, or bash the passenger rail service all together.

If one rules out sabotage, then there are two broad possibilities for liability as I see them:

1. Amtrak, through fault of the train crew---mainly the engineers---or through defective Amtrak equipment, which would be the motive power or the cars in the consist.

2. The Canadian National Railway, because it's their track upon which the City of New Orleans was travelling.

It is important to understand that Amtrak (more accurately the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) does not, for the most part, travel upon its own rails to get from point A to point B. The private freight railroads maintain ownership of almost all the track that Amtrak provides service over.¹ more...

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Stopped off at Borders tonight and found a book I'd been wanting to buy: Pennsylvania Railroad, by Mike Schafer and Brian Solomon, part of the Railroad Color History series. It's a good book, in my opinion. I haven't fully read the thing to review it, but I'll say two things against it:

1. The authors apologize several times for the incompleteness of the work. This seems more a pre-emptive response to fanatical PRR fans who would whine that the book is neither authoritative nor complete. To this, I can only say, "Why bother?" The book is 120 pages long. It's not going to cover 121 years of a company that at one point had more in bonded debt than the United States government and served something like half the population of the United States.

2. There are, however, spelling errors; I caught two of them on the first read. I can be somewhat sympathetic for a Tom Clancy 800 page plus doorstop, but for this book, good grief!

Still, if you're a fan of the Standard Railroad of the World, give it a look and a buy; it's good for quick reference.

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