Nostalgia & History > They handed him his orders in Monroe, Virginia.........

Southern Railway train number 1, the southbound Southern Crescent, en route from New York to Atlanta and New Orleans, pauses on the chilly night of December 29, 1972, at Monroe, Va. (My photo.)

Art House



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/25 13:30 by aehouse.

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Wonderful photo!

Wonderful night image, Art.  Were you the engineer or fireman on train #1-?

aehouse Wrote:
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> Southern Railway train number 1, the southbound
> Southern Crescent, en route from New York to
> Atlanta and New Orleans, pauses on the chilly
> night of December 29, 1972, at Monroe, Va. (My
> photo.)
>
> Art House

Thanks for the most excellent picture of No. 1. As a young railfan and later young fireman on no. 1, I tried to take good night shots of no. 1 at Salisbury and Charlotte NC. It could be difficult, especially if you had to put boiler water in the engines first. No. 1 was a special train. Besides being the lineal descendant of no. 37 - the original Crescent; on the Danville, North Charlotte, and South Charlotte Districts it was our "going home train". Aside from us passenger engineers and firemen returning to our home terminals of Salisbury NC, Greenville SC, and Atlanta respectively; no. 1 carried the people deadheading home to their terminals - the extra board men, the freight crews, and even the carrier officers. They handed me my orders at the Salisbury depot. I worked the North Charlotte District back to Greenville. For me, it was always a incident free trip home on the big green E8's. My last trip on no. 1 was at the end of December 1978. It was a mandatory freebie periodic refresher trip. I rode the E8's with my friends and brothers - engineer Melvin Sammons and fireman Doug Hicks. We talked about how much that train meant to us, how things were changing as SOU left passenger service, and they tried to cheer me up, because they were good guys. I patrolled the engine rooms and boiler rooms of the great green E8's one last time. I was my dream to work through the night on no. 1's engines. Seeing your fine night pic reminds me that I achieved my wish many nights.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/25 02:58 by Notch7.

Excellent night shot of a train I really miss !
Gary

Virtually no trace remains of Southern's operations at Monroe.

ctillnc Wrote:
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> Virtually no trace remains of Southern's
> operations at Monroe.

It's as baren as the surface of the moon!

If my recall is correct, Southern Railway (then part of NS, but still with Southern management) shutdown Monroe in the mid-1980's.

engineerinvirginia Wrote:
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> ctillnc Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Virtually no trace remains of Southern's
> > operations at Monroe.
>
> It's as baren as the surface of the moon!

....Except for the kudzu....

i got off Number One many times in Monroe, as a kid. My grandparents lived in Amherst County. The sound that all four E-8s made while throttling up to head south is a sound that I will never forget.