When the Virginia Central made it's short series of main line excursions in October of 93' Preston Claytor was working as train master for CSX at that time and rode all the runs. One Saturday coming in to Charlottesville from Staunton (on the C&O Mountain sub) we encountered a red signal at the Cross over on the Old Southern. It only held us up about 15 minutes, but the next weekend I remember coming off the east side of the mountain since about half the train had gotten off in Staunton and a bunch of us car host & the pilot crew (including Preston) were sitting in the empty dinner shooting the breeze. Suddenly I notice Preston had excused him self to the corner and was talking on his bag phone. About 5 minutes out side of Charlottesville, we realized the conversation was about getting us a clear signal across the diamonds in town. Finally after several calls, the words "well you tell him that MR. CLAYTOR SAYS that he doesn't care about your pig trains!"

We rolled in to town with green signals all the way.


btrue@vt.edu

> When the Virginia Central made it's short
> series of main line excursions in October of
> 93' Preston Claytor was working as train
> master for CSX at that time and rode all the
> runs. One Saturday coming in to
> Charlottesville from Staunton (on the
> C&O Mountain sub) we encountered a red
> signal at the Cross over on the Old
> Southern. It only held us up about 15
> minutes, but the next weekend I remember
> coming off the east side of the mountain
> since about half the train had gotten off in
> Staunton and a bunch of us car host &
> the pilot crew (including Preston) were
> sitting in the empty dinner shooting the
> breeze. Suddenly I notice Preston had
> excused him self to the corner and was
> talking on his bag phone. About 5 minutes
> out side of Charlottesville, we realized the
> conversation was about getting us a clear
> signal across the diamonds in town. Finally
> after several calls, the words "well
> you tell him that MR. CLAYTOR SAYS that he
> doesn't care about your pig trains!"

> We rolled in to town with green signals all
> the way.

Cool story. I chased one of those days to Clifton Forge. When the Claytors were in charge, the Passenger Train was again a PRIORITY, which was kinda neat to see.

Greg Scholl


Videos
sales@gregschollvideo.com

"And there were giants in the world back then........"

Maybe Jim Hefner can provide the reference.

If only railroaders still ran railroads today.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

Dave,

I constantly run across many who still don't understand how much railroad management culture has changed. But boy was it fun for a while.

Randy

> "And there were giants in the world
> back then........"

> Maybe Jim Hefner can provide the reference.

> If only railroaders still ran railroads
> today.

> Dave


minterjr@mindspring.com

> I constantly run across many who still don't
> understand how much railroad management
> culture has changed. But boy was it fun for
> a while.

> Randy

One of the greatest fellas I ever met in this business was Willard Edson, of Toledo,OH. A man of infinite connections because he was a real honest to God old fashioned gentleman (without an ego problem). Willard owned a brickyard on the TA&WRR and was instrumental in setting up the original Waterfront Electric Railway in Toledo. To make a long story short we had moved our motley collection of equipment to merge with equipment already stored at Willards brickyard. Willard had arranged to move the equipment from the TA&W over Conrail down to the Toledo waterfront location ...as a train, pulled by our American Aggregates Locomotive, under its own power. The train consisted of AA715, a Chicago elevated car, NKP54, a 44ton GE, and several other pieces of equipment.
The train was manned by Willard, my brother and myself, a division superintendant, a road foreman, a full five man crew and several car knockers. Down the TA&W we went with the old cummins chugging and AA715 astounding the crew that rode up front with my brother as the engineer. Willard and I rode with the DivSup and the rest of the gang trying to convince them that we would make it with no problems (fingers crossed). Once we were on Conrail we could open her up a little to stay in between two trains until we could get into the yard for the waterfront connection. It took some finagling to get the train turned so we could back down to the waterfront and all the DiVSup had to say was "let it be done" and it was. Despite the fact that the embankment had eroded leaving six inches of tie hanging out over the river we made it down the hill and the much relieved Conrail guys could take their leave. All in all a fun day!

lamontdc@adelphia.net

Speaking of Preston Claytor, does anyone know what he's up to these days?

Regards,
Hugh Odom
> When the Virginia Central made it's short
> series of main line excursions in October of
> 93' Preston Claytor was working as train
> master for CSX at that time and rode all the
> runs. One Saturday coming in to
> Charlottesville from Staunton (on the
> C&O Mountain sub) we encountered a red
> signal at the Cross over on the Old
> Southern. It only held us up about 15
> minutes, but the next weekend I remember
> coming off the east side of the mountain
> since about half the train had gotten off in
> Staunton and a bunch of us car host &
> the pilot crew (including Preston) were
> sitting in the empty dinner shooting the
> breeze. Suddenly I notice Preston had
> excused him self to the corner and was
> talking on his bag phone. About 5 minutes
> out side of Charlottesville, we realized the
> conversation was about getting us a clear
> signal across the diamonds in town. Finally
> after several calls, the words "well
> you tell him that MR. CLAYTOR SAYS that he
> doesn't care about your pig trains!"

> We rolled in to town with green signals all
> the way.


The Ultimate Steam Page
whodom2001@yahoo.com

> Speaking of Preston Claytor, does anyone
> know what he's up to these days?

Long time since I heard from him, but he was working overseas at the time. Lucky man.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> Long time since I heard from him, but he was
> working overseas at the time. Lucky man.

> Dave

Darn,

I was hoping he'd become CEO of CSX one day. The steam possibilities are endless with a man like him in charge. Oh well, maybe NS could pick him up when Goode retires.

kevin.r.gillespie@verizon.net

I believe he is a vice-president with RailAmerica in Boca Raton, FL.

K4s1361@hotmail.com

> In the end, my father and I plus two other German railfans are left at the station. We did not need a translator for one of them. What followed was worthy of a Keystone cops episode.
> Hugh Sinn

A similar episode happened to me about ten years ago to me -- except I was the only paying passenger. For the grand sum of $427 I chartered a complete steam train to run from Alsancak station in Ismir to the Camlic museum. We had a 1932 Stevenson built steamer, a 1918 wooden two-axle coach, a standard coach and a open platform PV used by Ataturk (the founder of mocdern Turkey. On the return trip I ran out of film and with the interpreter I detrained at in Selcuk to get more film. The train left without us--although we had reported what we were doing--the coach staff thought I was in the locomotive cab and vice-versa. The station manager panicked when we came back after two minutes to find our train gone--they telegraphed ahead (yes, they still used the key). They then hired a taxi at $20 to take us to the next station, where we were greeted with much laughter by the entire train crew and seemingly the whole village.

fred_ash@bankone.com

I recall reading in Trains some years ago about a German steam excursion on which the trains stopped out in the country for a runby. The train backed up and then charged ahead....and kept going. The line still had passenger service, and the fans had to flag down a following train to catch up with their steam trip, which had stopped up the line somewhere to take water.

K4s1361@hotmail.com

No Message

> A T-1 (2100 or 2102) stalled on the
> Gettysburg Branch with a Ramble. They found
> sticking brakes on one of the cars and once
> that was resolved the engine started the
> train and continued the trip.

Was it 2124, or did this happen more than once. There's a NJ-Records album (remember record players?) of 2124 with an event like the one above.

On another Iron Horse Ramble to Gettysburg, 2102 hit greased rails near Starners on the return trip. The engineer did a heluva job recovering and keeping the train moving.

If you want to hear this and other good stuff, Richard Carter (at New Hope & Ivyland) is making and selling CD's of the tape-recordings he made back in the 60's. Go to web-site "Voice of The Iron Horse" for details.

I was guessing 2100 or 2102 because after 1960 they changed engines at Rutherford so it was 2100 and later 2102 that ran to Gettysburg rather than 2124.

In 1960 the passengers were deposited at Hershey Park while 2124 was coaled and watered at Rutherford.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association