CAR EXCHANGE PJ AND LESTER PERRY

[Lester Perry]

There we have waybills for 2 cars going from J&M / Clifton Forge to Potomac & Baltimore RR.
I thought it would be good to start from where they are getting loaded. The photos are wide & narrow due to editing. This line is from 5 to 6 feet off the floor. Very close to the ceiling I cut out the ceiling on the top and the sky on the bottom. I think I will show an unedited pic first to give an idea of what I mean.



Now to start the story.

MyJ&M is a small railroad that is one day away from going broke, oh wait I think it went broke yesterday. I think you get the picture. The C.E.O. Is also a part time brakeman.

Pick up a load of crude at the Johnson Oil co. oil well.



Pull it out and hook up the caboose.



Now it goes to the wye at the top of the mountain. This is here for two reasons. 1.So you can change ends of the train, or turn around. 2. go in different directions. Coal mine one way, oil well and small town the other. I have added a drawing to help identify where the photos are.

[Lester Perry]

I hope this helps. In the next pic the caboose and tank car is left on track A and the locomotive is on track B bringing back the coal car.



Now every thing is on track A



Now we see the two cars are moved over to track B and the caboose is left on A.



now with the two cars on B we go back and get the caboose.



Oh man now I am confused. Anyway somehow I get the locomotive and caboose on the other end of the train. Now to go over head and start down hill.



It will drop about four feet in about eight feet of grade. There is a large amount of level track in the middle of the down hill trip. Here we see the train coming down approaching the level area where the yard is.








After passing the yard it crosses a rather long bridge that is kind of strange because it is a train and highway bridge combined. If you look closely you will see a truck on the other side of the bridge.



Now we will just follow it along for a while. In a little bit it will start going down hill again.










Here it has started going down hill again.



Now we can see how hairy this gets in some places as it comes out of the tunnel.



Getting close to the bottom now.



You can see it is approaching the C&O main now.



The two cars are left for the next C&O local.


to be continued.

[Ralph]

I like the use of the waybill to add interest. That photo of the train along the cliff side following the river and the covered bridge is very cool!

[Lester Perry]

Thanks Ralph, that area is hard to get to. I like the way it turned out also. That area is almost directly under the oil well.