Congratulations to the winners in our May 2021 Chapter Photo Contest! They were, 1st Place, Bill Grady, 2nd Place, Cooper Smith and 3rd Place Bill Grady. Our next contest will run from July 15 -31st, 2021 and your entries need to be submitted no later than August 7th to jim@jimpearsonphotography.com. Each dues paying member may submit two JPGs.
Past Chapter presidents Rich Hane and Rick Bivins joined our current Chapter President Keith Kittinger for an impromptu clean up day at Kentucky Innovation Station (Old L&N Depot in Madisonville, Ky) where we hold our monthly meetings of the West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS.
The grounds were much in need of mowing, weeding and the bushes were unruly. Rich did a fabulous job of bringing them back to form while Keith maned the weed eater and leaf blower. Ricky mowed and trimmed.
We all three cleaned up the resulting debris. It feels good to give back a little to our gracious host, Kentucky Innovation Station on June 9, 2021.
Photography by Dr. Frederick J. Ripley, PO Box 21491, Columbus, OH 43221, 614-949-2056fjripley68@gmail.com
Entitled ’20 ’20 VISIONS: 100 YEARS OF WEST VIRGINIA RAILROADING, it features 27 of Ripley’s photographs
April 30 – October 30, 2021, at the West Virginia Railroad Museum in Elkins West Virginia Railroad Museum 2 Railroad Avenue Elkins, WV 26241 304-637-4810
OPEN 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS, & SUNDAYS STARTING APRIL 30
The West Virginia Railroad Museum is pleased to present the work of nationally acclaimed railroad photographer Dr. Frederick J. Ripley as the centerpiece of their exhibit for the 2021 season. Entitled ’20 ’20 VISIONS: 100 YEARS OF WEST VIRGINIA RAILROADING, it features 27 of Ripley’s dramatic images taken throughout West Virginia and the surrounding region, all enlarged to 20” x 30” and framed under glass, accompanied by detailed caption information. All of Ripley’s photos are for sale, and all sales benefit the West Virginia Railroad Museum. The exhibit also includes a fascinating selection of older photos, maps from various eras, and detailed interpretive text panels. The museum is on the upper level of the historic Darden Mill building, a beautifully restored venue in this former railroad town. Staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly to create a safe environment, with frequent cleaning and sanitizing. Don’t miss this exciting exhibit about railroading in the Mountain State!
In bankruptcy since late 1977, the Milwaukee Road elected in 1980 to slim the railroad down to what they hoped to be an economically viable core in the upper Midwest. Eliminated from the system was their hard-won Pacific Extension, completed in 1909. Placed up for sale to other railroads, only a few short segments of the Pacific Extension were deemed useful, the rest was scrapped out.
Most of the line segments that survived were bits of terminal trackage and branch-lines with viable shippers, thus the mainline was essentially abandoned in its entirety except for a few segments that were sold to new short-lines. Oddly one major piece remained: the line over Snoqualmie Pass in Washington’s Cascade Range.
This, one of the most spectacular mountain crossings in North America, was purchased by Burlington Northern in 1980. Some 50 miles in length, it reached from Maple Valley, Washington eastward to near Easton, WA. There, Burlington Northern’s ex-Northern Pacific mainline over Stampede Pass is barely 50 yards away, at a point near Cabin Creek.
The Milwaukee’s line over Snoqualmie Pass remained intact, except for the extensively damaged Hull Creek trestle, where one span of a long-curved steel trestle was knocked out. The BN never made clear their intentions. The Milwaukee’s 11,789’ tunnel under the pass and routeto eastern destinations was shorter and faster. Updating the right-of-way, signaling and ribbon-rail would cost a fortune. Their nearby Stevens Pass line of the former Great Northern was no doubt a consideration.
As the two pictures make clear, the rails were taken out, and an easement sold to communications concerns. The State of Washington purchased the right-of-way and developed a state-wide hiking, biking and equestrian trail. (the gap was bridged in the damaged trestle)
Credits: Snowshed scene by Robert Johnson, east portal by Casey Adams. Some text verbatim from CTC Board Magazine
Mr. Jon T. Futrell, age 50, of Mayfield, KY passed away at 2:31 PM Wednesday, June 2, 2021 at Mercy Health – Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, KY. Jon was a graduate of Mayfield High School and Murray State University and Jon was a staff writer for the Paducah Sun for nearly 25 years. His passion for local sports and love of movies will be remembered by all who knew him.
Jon is survived by his father & step-mother – Jim & Myra Futrell of Mayfield, KY; his brother – Andrew (Monica) Futrell and nieces – Maggie, Grace & Nora of Mokena, IL; step-sister – Heather Hilton, niece – Lynsey & nephew – Taylor all of Dyersburg, TN; aunt – Evelyne Futrell; cousins – Amy (Jerry) Norman, Matt (Stephanie) Futrell and Shelley Futrell.
He was preceded in death by his mother – Carol Price Futrell; grand-parents – James & Doris Futrell, Jim & Peggy Price and an uncle – Bill Futrell.
Visitation for Jon [was] held at the Brown Funeral Home in Mayfield, KY on Friday, June 4, 2021 from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. Private family services will be held at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy can be made in the form of a donation to your favorite local high school organization or charity.
The Norfolk Southern heritage unit, NS 8114 at Princeton, IN. – Photos by Steve Gentry
Steve Gentry caught two NS freights waiting to enter the yard at Princeton, IN, May 8, 2021. – Photo by Steve Gentry
The year is 1968, the place: Bethel, Minnesota on the Great Northern line from the Twin
Cities north to the port cities of Duluth and Superior. Mail messenger Phil Fox is hanging a catcher
pouch of outbound mail on the crane.
Soon the southbound Badger, Train #23 from Duluth will fly by at 70 MPH and snag the pouch with a hook mounted in the Railway Post Office open car door. The clerk manning the hook will simultaneously toss a sack on inbound mail. The arms on the mail crane will collapse as a safety measure for other train crewman like the conductor standing in the vestibule.
This scene was repeated daily, hundreds of times on 1500 RPO routes across the country. The Railway Mail Service once employed 30,000 men in 4,000 RPO cars. These men sorted mail enroute, a service that many times included dispatching letters in pouches at stations that were snagged on the fly earlier in the same run.
It all came to an end on June 30, 1977 when the “New York & Washington,” in both directions, made their last runs. As
a sole survivor, this RPO run saw all the others “twilight” with the inception of AMTRAK in 1971. RPOs were victims of airlifting first class mail and the use of trucks.
A little editorial comment: When the RPOs were active, you could mail a letter in Seattle and have it delivered to a home in the Twin Cities on the 3rd day. Even with 500MPH jets today,?? forget it.
Photos by Don L.Hofsommer as seen in Classic Trains magazine, Fall 2006
Professor Hofsommer is a noted railfan/author, Submitted by Gary Ostlund
There are a few (train) places I often think about as spring approaches each year as I’ve seen pictures in magazines and websites. First is the southeaster part of Kentucky and western Virginia, on L&N’s Cumberland Valley Sub. There’s a spot between Big Stone Gap and Appalachia, VA, where the former Southern crossed over the L&N. Before this small portion of the L&N was relocated to share rails with the Southern, it dashed into a tunnel known as Callahan’s Nose Tunnel (pictured at left) and continued a parallel route to the SR into Appalachia. The roadbed, tunnel and bridge across Hwy 23 and the Powell River are now an active Rails to Trails path.
Hagen’s Switchback is another location on my bucket list for a visit some spring. What a marvel, the only operating Class 1 mainline switchback in use and it was never meant to be a permanent solution. Relatively new, the long tunnel from the Kentucky side following the Martins’s Fork of the Cumberland River, pierces through over a mile before exiting on the south side of the mountain where the trains reverse westward up the wye to the old CV line (now gone), then pulls ahead eastward. South tail tracks are too short to hold a regular train so they have 3 holding tracks if needed.
My hope is to visit these locations when the redbuds are in bloom. I hear they cover the sides of the hills. I hope you can get out and visit either your favorite rail fanning spots or find a couple of new ones. Either way, be safe, stay off the tracks, and enjoy the re-awakening of nature as we move into a new spring season!
Enjoy! – Bill Thomas, Editor
I went out looking for a military train that was south bound and I ran out of light. I did manage to get a north bound mixed freight and a south bound coal train. – Photography by Bill Farrell
Steve Gentry spotted this WFRX GP15 March 9, 2021, it was sitting on the site of the old L&N station in Evansville. The old L&N station was located on Fulton Ave close to Ohio Street. It has a fresh coat of paint. The track it was sitting on services a couple of downtown Evansville locations. Apparently 560 is being assigned switching duties at Berry Plastics in Evansville.
The Oriental Limited is slowly easing by No. 5012, having just exited the original Great Northern Cascade Tunnel in Washington State. Cameras were poised to record the last westbound train over the old snowshed route. But, instead of a happy group of tourists on the back platform of the observation car there was a solitary passenger bundled up against the chill.
This unhappy circumstance was remedied by replacing the lone passenger (by photo retouching) with Wenatchee’s Apple Festival Queen and her Ladies in Waiting before release to the press. The next westbound Oriental Limited will pass through the newly completed 7.79 miles tunnel, several hundred feet below. That tunnel opened on January 12, 1929.
The Oriental Limited was the Great Northern’s premium passenger train prior to introducing the streamlined Empire Builder in 1947. And you thought photo-shopping and spin-control was something new…!
Submitted by Gary Ostlund. – Pix’s by Lee Pickett, Index, WA ., as seen in Charles & Dorothy Woods book: Great Northern Railway a Pictorial Study
My favorite toy! Year 2000, 100th Anniversary Lionel train set. Santa Fe, 11 cars: four engines and 7 passenger cars. O-Gauge, 0-31 minimum radius, set length 165” (13’, 9”). Longest train set Lionel had ever made at the time. – Bill Corum
