It is a generic work safely sign.  It reminds employees to be careful. 

It is a safety sign.   I recall seeing them on various buildings during the sixties and seventies at Elmore Yard, Mullens WV.

Tom M

You are thinking of the Virginina EL3A boxcab.  that thing is ridiculous, its more like three engines under one road number. It has side rods to.

Not rediculous.  They pulled 9000 ton coal trains coal trains from Clarks Gap, WV to Roanoke, Va. from 1926 till the last was retired in 1959.  Several were operated as single units for use on local freights and work trains.

They were supplemented by the bigger  EL-2bs in 1948 as I mentioned previously.  The rectifiers began arriving in October 1956 to begin retirement of the class EL-3a. 

The streamlined Virginian electrics were class EL-2b.  They were built by GE arrived on the property in 1948.  Known to the crews as "roundnoses" and "streamliners."  They were operated as two unit sets with each unit having four four axel trucks.  They produced 6800 horsepower with a maximum speed of 50 mph.  There were four pairs purchased numbered 125 - 128. 

They were painted black and yellow, not blue and yellow as mentioned previouly.  There were no Virginian diesels or electrics painted blue and yellow.  That is Lionel fantasy.

Tom M

The Virginian Railway used an old tender mounted on wood pilings as a water tank at Oak Hill, WV on the White Oak Branch.

The Nickle Plate did not own any 4-8-4s.  Wasn't the Dixie name used by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis for their 4-8-4s.

Tom M

Who knows at this late date.  I gave you the answer I was told by my father.  He did not know why some employee chose to name an old electric after a TV clown but it happened.  Good enough for me.

Tom M

I was always told the name Clarabelle came from Clarabelle the Clown from the 1950s Howdy Doody TV Show.
   I understand that, but my question was why was the one box cab electric named Clarabelle? Was it because the locomotive looked clownish? Or was it because the crew liked the name, and the name stuck? Or was it because the electric operated in a clownish manner?

The 800 was owned by the Virginian and blew up on April 1, 1941.

What railroad was the 800 owned by and when did she explode?
Posted by: Elmore Yard 

Bob

I was always told the name Clarabelle came from Clarabelle the Clown from the 1950s Howdy Doody TV show. 

The class AE 2-10-10-2 no. 800 blew up at Stewartsville killing the headend crew after leaving Roanoke on a eastbound coal train.

Tom M

Rich

The squareheads were the original VGN electrics from 1925, class EL-3A.  They were 3 unit side rod engines.  There were also several single units class EL-1A.

The E-33 were VGN class EL-C and were referred to as rectifiers by VGN men. 

The remaining class of VGN electrics were the EL-2B.  These two unit streamline GEs were known as roundnoses and streamliners.

Tom M

Virginian

Good thing about Stewartsville.  Dad started in 1947 and worked west of Roanoke on the New River Division.  My Grandfather, Great Grandfather and Step Great Grandfather all worked for the Virginian so somebody in the family probably ran into some of your relatives.

Though not steam, one of the single unit squarehead electrics, no. 113, was called Clarabelle by the men.  Always heard this was from Clarabelle the Clown from the Howdy Doody show.

Tom M

I have always heard mallets pronounced as mallies at least in the coalfields of WV and southwest VA.  The proper French was not used but was Americanized.  My Dad was a Virginian/N&W brakeman/conductor and worked on the various classes of USRA mallets owned by the Virginian.  He also rode the class AE 2-10-10-2.  He was also on different classes of C&O and N&W mallets where interchange with the Virginian took place.

Tom M

Then there are the Mallets, named for their French engineer inventor.  I guess the name should be pronounced " Ma ley"

You are correct.  The correct spelling is Kanawha.

Tom M


Also, one other question, if I may: I read somewhere in the past, that the Kanawha type was spelled that way, and not  Kanawaha. It may have been an early typo by the writer of the early article, and I plead my ignorance at said spelling. And I apologize if I have "upset" you by asking about the spelling of Kanawaha.

Rich

The L&N meged with the Monon in 1971.  The L&N wihich was taken over by the Seaboard System in 1982 and became CSX in 1986 according to the the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Historical Society webpage.

TM

According to the Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society webpage, the NYC&StL started in 1881.