Nostalgia & History > N&W 475 in 1957

Date: 07/19/17 13:29
N&W 475 in 1957
Author: johnacraft

Related to Evan's post of Ed's N&W photos, here are three photos I used when working on a Strasburg Rail Road photo special with N&W 475 in 2004.

1. N&W 475 in 1932.

2. N&W 475 in July 1954, similar to the photo Evan linked to in the earlier thread.

3. N&W 475 after being backdated. The text reads "made up as a woodburner for the Roanoke Diamond Jubilee. 8-7-1957." The Roanoke Diamond Jubilee occurred June 14-23:

http://theroanoker.com/interests/history/one-year-in-roanoke%3A-1957/

The headlight bracket the N&W fabricated for the backdated look bore no resemblance to the original oil-headlight brackets applied to N&W power. That bracket wasn't on the locomotive when Strasburg acquired it, so they made their own bracket, which 475 wore from 1993 to 2004.

The text copied below is from the proposal I sent Linn Moedinger in the spring of 2004. Part of the preparation for that event included making a new headlight bracket. I actually went to Abingdon, VA, and measured N&W 433's bracket, and I believe Rick Musser was able to source the original N&W drawing for the fabrication.

While it’s not part of the charter planning, the cosmetics applied to 475 during the “Diamond Jubilee” in 1957 is interesting. 475 appears as “Shenandoah Valley” 475 with a footboard pilot (presumably the one seen in the color photo above) in some pictures, as “N&W” 475 with a cowcatcher and fake link-and-pin in the August photo above, and with a road pilot on the August 31 1957 excursion to Blacksburg.

After the Jubilee, it’s hard to say what happened. The only 4-8-0s still in service in September 1957 were used on the Abingdon branch, the Blacksburg branch, and in relief work train service. M’s were done for by December 1957 – both of the branches were dieselized. (I’ve seen one photo of an M dated 1958, but it’s probably mis-captioned.) It seems unlikely that 475 would have gone back into service again after the Jubilee. I haven’t seen a post-1957 photo of it with any sort of headlight bracket and, given that all four of the remaining engines at the Roanoke scrapyard lost their headlights but kept their brackets, I would surmise that 475 went straight to the scrapyard with its phony bracket, which disappeared with the boiler jacket when the engine was stripped.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 13:36 by johnacraft.