Through the images and stories of the people who built it, discover
the fascinating history of a railway established to fuel the nations'
appetite for coal and that grew into so much more.
For a century, the Norfolk and Western Railway operated as one of the
greatest transportation companies in the southeastern United States.
From developing the coal fields of West Virginia to accommodating
passengers aboard its famous Powhaten Arrow and Pocahontas lines, the
N&W was the last major railroad to abandon the steam engine. The story
of the N&W is a story about people-a story of the tens of thousands of
people who worked in the shops and aboard the trains, sold the tickets
and moved the freight, laid the track and managed corporate affairs.
Images of Rail: Norfolk and Western Railway celebrates that heritage
through the lens of some 200 archival photographs.
From images of the muscular Class J steam locomotive to the lone agent
of the rural depot, these photographs have been harvested from the N&W's
files at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. The archival material
provides the reader the rare opportunity to rummage through the N&W's
attic. See the engine crews at the turn of the last century, the shop
gangs, freight agents, roundhouses, stations, and iron horses of a
bygone age. With views of the rugged and, at times, dangerous days of
railroading in the late 1800s to the rise of the N&W as a member of
America's corporate elite, these pictures convey the railway's storied
history.
