Lecture: Steam to Diesel: The C&O and N&W on Different Tracks

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Time & Place

  • Lecture: Steam to Diesel: The C&O and N&W on Different Tracks
    • Lee Hall Depot

      February 7, 2024, 7 p.m.

      9 Elmhurst Street and Warwick Boulevard
      Newport News, VA 23603
    • Phone: 757-888-3371
      Website: Click here to visit us online

Description

Following the Second World War, locomotive “dieselization” became the national rage. Our region's two Class-I, coal-hauling railroads faced this challenge to their century-old motive-power practices differently. With Norfolk & Western’s terminus at Lambert’s Point and the Chesapeake & Ohio's at the tip of the Peninsula, both railroads transited rural counties: the N&W bisecting Isle of Wight on the Southside and the C&O through Warwick. Even before the war, the advantages of internal combustion, diesel-electric locomotives over external-combustion, reciprocating steamers were apparent. But the huge wartime demand for rail transport, both here and abroad, put “experimental” dieselization mostly on hold until after VJ Day. Learn how the two railroads, both with abundant and ready supplies of bituminous fuel, met the challenge differently. This rail heritage lecture is co-sponsored by Newport News Historic Services and the Lee Hall Train Station Foundation. It is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (757) 525-7372.