Cedar train wreck

Some 15 ambulances arrived on the scene after 1 a.m.[5][7] Three maintenance of way (MOW) wreck trains arrived from Williamson, Iaeger, and Bluefield at 3:15, 5:00, and 11:00 a.m., respectively.[7] 25 injured people were taken to the nearby Williamson Memorial Hospital in Williamson.[5] Because the accident damaged the rails in Cedar, the N&W trains took a detour over the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) tracks between Gilbert and Kenova, West Virginia.[5][7]

40 uninjured passengers took refuge in the three sleeping cars along with the dining car and tavern-lounge car, which were all towed back to Iaeger, where the sleeping cars were picked up by the westbound Cavalier train, while the dining car and tavern-lounge car were picked up by the eastbound Pocahontas train.[7] The westbound track at Cedar was minorly damaged with a kinked rail and the track was shifted over from the force of the wreck.[7] After replacing the kinked rail, a bulldozer shoved the track back into place, and the westbound track reopened on January 24 at 11:25 a.m.[7][9] The eastbound track, where the train derailed, was severely damaged and got pushed down the embankment for 340 ft (103.63 m), from about 55 ft (16.76 m) east of the point of the accident.[9] The MOW crew quickly repaired the eastbound track and it reopened that same day at 1:30 p.m.[9] About 10:10 p.m., they began to rerail the six damaged cars and towed all of them to Williamson for inspection.[9]

No. 611 was the most difficult rolling stock to get rerailed.[9] The MOW crew had to disconnect the locomotive from its tender and rerail it one set of wheels at a time.[9] On the afternoon of January 26, No. 611 was finally back on the rails and towed to Williamson for inspection.[5][9] The locomotive's skirting panels, running boards, valve gear parts, and other appliance parts were torn off from its left side.[2][3]

The estimated damage cost to the six cars was $6,000 to the express baggage car, $7,500 to the RPO car, $12,000 to coach No. 539, and $9,000 to coach No. 1727.[9] The damages to coaches Nos. 1729 and 1734 were estimated at $2,000 and $1,000 respectively.[9] The damaged tracks were estimated at $5,240.[9] Other expenses such as the wages of the wreck car forces, section men, and train crews totaled another $23,866.21.[9] The damage to No. 611 and its tender was estimated at $75,000.[9] The total damage cost of the accident was around $141,606.21.[9]

N&W P3 class coach No. 539, one of the passenger cars involved in the wreck

The No. 611 locomotive and the six damaged cars were towed back to the Roanoke Shops in Roanoke, Virginia, where they were all repaired and put back into service in less than a month.[9][10] The locomotive's sand dome and tender retained their dents.[10][11] In 1959, No. 611 was retired from revenue service and donated to the Roanoke City Council, who put it on display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT), thanks to the efforts of Washington, D.C. lawyer W. Graham Claytor Jr., who convinced the N&W that No. 611 was in excellent condition after its accident.[11][12]

In 1981–1982, N&W's successor, Norfolk Southern (NS) restored the locomotive to operating condition for use in pulling excursion trains on their steam program until it returned to the VMT in 1995.[13][14] In 2013–2015, VMT restored No. 611 to operation again with $3.5 million donated from nearly 3,000 donors all over the United States and 18 foreign countries.[13][15] The dents on the locomotive's tender were also removed during its restoration.[16] The VMT now operated No. 611 as a traveling exhibit.[13]

The first car, express baggage car No. 123, was sold for scrap in 1968 at Kaplan's Scrapyard in Elmira, New York.[4]^: 2[17] The second car, RPO No. 94, was scrapped in Roanoke around 1968.[4]^: 1 The third car, P3 class coach No. 539, was retired from N&W passenger service in 1971 and used in commuter rail service in Chicago, Illinois.[18] In 1982, it was acquired by NS for use in their steam program until it was donated to the Watauga Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) ten years later, where it was now use for lease in public and private excursions by Amtrak and some various heritage railroads and railroad museums.[18][19] The fourth and fifth cars, Pm class Nos. 1727 and 1729, were both sold to the Ontario Northland Railway in 1971.[4]^: 27 The sixth car, Pm class No. 1734, was renumbered to 1008 in 1970.[4]^: 28 One of the undamaged cars, the Ohio State University was preserved and currently owned by the Florida-Georgia Railway Heritage Museum, which operated it in excursion service on their Georgia Coastal Railway in Kingsland, Georgia.[20]

The Interstate Commerce Commission accident report No. 3676 found that the accident was caused by an excessive speed on curve.[1][21] Hoback said Willard had applied the brakes and closed the locomotive's throttle to slow the train down before it hits the curve.[2][3] One of the passengers, Williamson yard engineer W.O. Hylton said that No. 611 traveled at 57.60 mph (93 km/h) from the speed board to the point of the accident.[3][9] One N&W official said that Willard had been a "careful" engineer with 30 years of experience on the Pocahontas Division.[11] The Williamson Daily News newspaper said that Willard suffered a heart attack and was unable to slow the train down.[9][22] The Roanoke Times newspaper reported on February 3 that Willard had been scalded to death by the steam.[11]