text:
Norfolk and Western Railway
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (October 2011) |
Norfolk and Western Railway | |
Reporting mark | NW |
Locale | Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Mississippi, Florida, and West Virginia |
Dates of operation | 1838–1997 |
Successor | Norfolk Southern |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
Headquarters | Roanoke, Virginia |
The Norfolk and Western Railway (reporting mark NW), a US class I railroad, was formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia for most of its 150-year existence.
NW was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house at the Roanoke Shops as well as their own hopper cars. Around 1960, NW was the last major American railroad to convert from steam to diesel motive power.
In December 1959 NW merged with long-time rival Virginian Railway (reporting mark VGN) in the Pocahontas coal region. Later it grew larger by merging with other railroads including Nickel Plate Road and Wabash to form a system serving 14 US states and the Canadian province of Ontario. It extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and Great Lakes. At the end of 1970 N&W operated 7,595 miles (12,223 km) of road on 14,881 miles (23,949 km) of track, including the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad (P&WV) but not including the Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad (AC&Y), Chesapeake Western Railway (CHW), the Dereco railroads, Lorain & West Virginia Railroad (L&WV), New Jersey, Indiana and Illinois Railroad (NJI&I) and Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railway (NF&D). In 1965, the Nickel Plate Road merged with the Wheeling and Lake Erie which in 1966 then merged into Norfolk and Western lines. Norfolk and Western by 1970, controlled rail lines from North Carolina North to New York and Virginia West to Illinois.
In 1982 NW merged with the Southern Railway, another profitable carrier, to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS), but it continued paper operations until it was merged into the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1997.
City Point, bridging the Dismal Swamp, William Mahone, Civil War[edit]
NW's earliest predecessor was the City Point Railroad (CPRR), a 9-mile (14 km) short line railroad formed in 1838 to extend from City Point, a port on the tidal James River to Petersburg, Virginia, which was located on the fall line of the shallower Appomattox River. City Point is now part of the independent city of Hopewell, Virginia. In 1854, CPRR became part of the South Side Railroad, which connected Petersburg with Lynchburg, where it interchanged through traffic with both the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T) and the James River and Kanawha Canal.
Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad[edit]
William Mahone (1826–1895), an 1847 engineering graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), was employed by Francis Mallory to build the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (N&P) and eventually became its president in the pre-Civil War era. Construction of N&P commenced in 1853. Mahone's innovative corduroy roadbed through the Great Dismal Swamp near Norfolk, Virginia, employed a log foundation laid at right angles beneath the surface of the swamp. It is still in use 150 years later and it withstands immense tonnages of coal traffic.
Mahone married Otelia Butler, from Smithfield in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. She was said to be a "cultured lady"[citation needed]. Her father Robert Butler (1784–1853) had been Treasurer of the State of Virginia. Popular legend has it[citation needed] that Otelia and William Mahone traveled along the newly completed N&P naming stations along the 52-mile (84 km) tangent between Suffolk and Petersburg from Ivanhoe, a book she was reading by Walter Scott. From Scott's historical Scottish novels, Otelia chose the place names of Windsor, Waverly and Wakefield. She tapped the Scottish Clan "McIvor" for the name of Ivor, a small Southampton County town. When they could not agree, it is said that the young couple invented a new word in honor of their "dispute", which is how the tiny community of Disputanta was named. The N&P was completed in 1858.
Civil War[edit]
Of small stature, dynamic "Little Billy" Mahone became a Major General in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He was widely regarded as the hero of the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864–1865. Otelia Mahone served as a nurse in the Confederate capital of Richmond.
The N&P was severed by the war. The portion east of the Blackwater River at Zuni, Virginia was possessed by the Union for most of the war. The eastern portion of the City Point Railroad played a crucial role for Union General Ulysses S. Grant during the Siege of Petersburg, and was operated by the United States Military Railroad. The South Side Railroad was also heavily damaged.
Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad created and becomes Norfolk and Western[edit]
William and Otelia Mahone were each illustrious characters in Virginia in the post-bellum period as Virginia began to rebuild. After the war, "Little Billy" Mahone got quickly to work restoring "his" N&P, and resumed his dream of linking the three trunk lines across the southern tier of Virginia to reach points to the west. He became president of all three, and was the driving force in the 1870 corporate merger of N&P, South Side Railroad and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad to form the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O). The AM&O extended 408 miles (657 km) from Norfolk to Bristol, Virginia. William and Otelia Mahone moved to the headquarters city of Lynchburg, which was the midpoint of the AM&O. The acronym AM&O was said to stand for "All Mine and Otelia's."
The AM&O operated profitably in the early 1870s but like many railroads encountered financial problems as a result of the Panic of 1873. A fourth road of the AM&O family was planned to extend west through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, but was never built. Mahone retained control of AM&O for several more years before his relationship with English and Scottish bondholders deteriorated in 1876. As a result, receivers were appointed to oversee his work. After several more years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's role as a railroad builder ended in 1881 when northern financial interests took control.
At the foreclosure auction, the AM&O was purchased by E.W. Clark & Co., a private banking firm in Philadelphia with ties to the large Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) which controlled the Shenandoah Valley Railroad (SVRR) then under construction up the valley from the Potomac River and seeking a southern connection. The AM&O was renamed Norfolk and Western, perhaps taken from a 1850s charter application filed by citizens of Norfolk, Virginia. Mahone no longer led the erstwhile AM&O but was active in Virginia politics as a leader of the Readjuster Party. As a result he was able to arrange for a portion of the state's proceeds of the AM&O sale to go for community purposes near his home at Petersburg, including the funds to begin what is now Virginia State University (VSU), as well as a nearby mental health facility which is now Central State Hospital. Mahone helped arrange the election of William E. Cameron of Petersburg as governor of Virginia, and was later elected himself to a term as a Senator in the U.S. Congress. He suffered a massive stroke in Washington, D.C. in 1895 and died shortly thereafter. Otelia lived on in Petersburg until her death in 1911.
Frederick J. Kimball, Big Lick becomes Roanoke, reaching Ohio[edit]
George Frederick Tyler became president of the new NW when it was organized in May 1881. Frederick J. Kimball, a civil engineer and partner in E.W. Clark & Co., became First Vice President. Henry Fink, whom Mahone had hired in 1855, became Second Vice President and General Superintendent. Kimball and his board of directors selected Big Lick, a small Virginia village on the Roanoke River, to be the junction of SVRR and NW. Big Lick was later renamed Roanoke, Virginia.
At its founding, NW primarily transported agricultural products. Kimball, who had a strong interest in geology, led the railroad's efforts to open the Pocahontas coalfields in western Virginia and southern West Virginia. In mid-1881, NW acquired the franchises to four other lines: the New River Railroad, the New River Railroad, Mining and Manufacturing Company, the Bluestone Railroad, and the East River Railroad. Consolidated into the New River Railroad Company, with Kimball as president, these railroads became the basis for NW's New River Division, which was soon built from New Kanawha (near East Radford) up the west bank of the New River through Pulaski County and into Giles County to the mouth of the East River near Glen Lyn, Virginia. From there, the new line ran up the East River, crossing the Virginia-West Virginia border several times to reach the coalfields to the west near the Great Flat Top Mountain. Coal transported to Norfolk soon became NW's primary commodity, and led to great wealth and profitability.
Kimball served as NW president from 1883 to 1895.[1] Under his leadership, NW continued expansion westward with its lines through the wilderness of West Virginia with the Ohio Extension, eventually extending north across the Ohio River to Columbus, Ohio by the Scioto Valley Railroad. Acquisition of other lines, including the Cincinnati, Portsmouth and Virginia Railroad (CP&V) (which it had long supported and leased) extended the NW system west along the Ohio River to Cincinnati, Ohio, south from Lynchburg to Durham, North Carolina, and south from Roanoke to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. By the time Kimball died in 1903, the railroad had attained the basic structure it would use for more than 60 years.
Author Nelson Blake noted in his biography of William Mahone that, while the former General had lost control of "his" (and wife Otelia's) railroad and its future by 1881, he retained personal ownership of considerable land in the new coal regions. By his death in 1895, the NW's expansion and coal traffic had helped him become one of the wealthiest men in Virginia.
In 1885, several small mining companies representing about 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) of bituminous coal reserves grouped together to form the coalfields' largest landowner, the Philadelphia-based Flat-Top Coal Land Association. NW bought the association and reorganized it as the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company (PCCC). The PCCC was later renamed the Pocahontas Land Corporation (PLC) and is now a subsidiary of NS.
As the availability and fame of high-quality Pocahontas bituminous coal increased, economic forces took over. Coal operators and their employees settled dozens of towns in southern West Virginia, and in the next few years, as coal demand swelled, some of them amassed fortunes. The countryside was soon sprinkled with tipples, coke ovens, houses for workers, company stores and churches. In the four decades before the Crash of 1929 and subsequent Depression, these coal towns flourished. One example was the small community of Bramwell, West Virginia, which in its heyday boasted the highest per capita concentration of millionaires in the country.[2]
In 1886, the NW tracks were extended directly to coal piers at Lambert's Point, which was located in Norfolk County just north of the City of Norfolk on the Elizabeth River, where one of the busiest coal export facilities in the world was built to reach Hampton Roads shipping. A residential section was also developed to house the families of the workers. Many early residents of Lambert's Point were involved in the coal industry.
The opening of the coalfields made NW prosperous and Pocahontas coal world-famous. By 1900, Norfolk was the leading coal exporting port on the East Coast. Transported by NW, and later the neighboring VGN, it fueled half the world's navies and today stokes steel mills and power plants all over the globe[citation needed].
Roanoke Shops: building precision steam locomotives in-house[edit]
The company was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house in its extensive facilities at Roanoke, known as the Roanoke Shops. This practice was very uncommon in the US and much of the world, although British railways mostly built their own locomotives, or had outside contractors build locomotives to their designs rather than have the manufacturers design the locomotives.
The NW's Roanoke Shops employed thousands of craftsmen, and did extensive work on other types of rolling stock in addition to manufacturing locomotives. Over the years, the NW refined its products. The later famed classes A, J, and Y6 locomotives were the result. Designed, built and maintained by NW personnel, these three types made the company known industry-wide for its excellence in steam power. NW's commitment to steam power was due in part to its investment in the manufacturing capacity and human resources to build and operate steam locomotives, and partially due to the major commodity it hauled, coal. In 1960, shortly after it acquired VGN by merger, NW was the last major railroad in the United States to convert from steam to diesel-electric motive power. Even after manufacturing of steam locomotives ended, the Roanoke Shops continued to build and repair other form of rolling stock, work which continued under NS in the early 21st century.
World Wars, Great Depression, and efficiencies[edit]
Year | Traffic |
1925 | 13684 |
1933 | 9804 |
1944 | 19907 |
1956 | 22364 |
NW operated profitably through World War I and World War II and paid regular dividends throughout the Depression. During World War I, NW was jointly operated with VGN under the USRA's wartime takeover of the Pocahontas Roads. The operating efficiencies were significant, and after the war, when the railroads were returned to their respective owners and competitive status, NW never lost sight of the VGN and its low-gradient routing through Virginia. However, the US Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) turned down attempts at combining the roads until the late 1950s, when a proposed NW-VGN merger was finally approved.
NW also operated safely in this time, being the recipient of the Gold E. H. Harriman Award for 1938. In a promotional booklet published in 1939, NW wrote "For the second time in 12 years, the American Museum of Safety has awarded the Harriman Memorial Gold Medal to the Norfolk & Western Railway for the outstanding safety record during 1938 among class I railroads of the United States." It is further noted that the railway carried one million passengers more than 86,000,000 miles (138,000,000 km) without incident in the period from 1924 to 1938.[3]
At the end of 1925 NW operated 2,241 miles (3,607 km) of route on 4,429 miles (7,128 km) track; at the end of 1956 NW operated 2,132 miles (3,431 km) of route on 4,759 miles (7,659 km) of track.
The Virginian Railway — an engineering marvel of its day[edit]
VGN was conceived and built by William Nelson Page and Henry Huttleston Rogers. Page had helped engineer and build the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) through the mountains of West Virginia and Rogers had already become a millionaire and a principal of Standard Oil before their partnership was formed early in the 20th century.
Initially, their project was an 80-mile (130 km)-long short line railroad. After failing to establish favorable rates to interchange coal traffic with the big railroads (who shut them out through collusion), the project expanded. Rogers was apparently a silent partner in the early stages, and the bigger railroads did not take Page seriously. However, the partners planned and then built a "Mountains to Sea" railroad from the coal fields of southern West Virginia to port near Norfolk at Sewell's Point in the harbor of Hampton Roads. They accomplished this right under the noses of the pre-existing and much bigger C&O and NW railroads and their leaders by forming two small intrastate railroads, Deepwater Railway, in West Virginia, and Tidewater Railway in Virginia. Once right-of-way and land acquisitions had been secured, the two small railroads were merged in 1907 to form the Virginian Railway.
Engineered by Page and financed almost entirely from Rogers' personal resources, VGN was built following a policy of investing in the best route and equipment on initial selection and purchase to save operating expenses.
Mark Twain spoke at VGN's dedication in Norfolk, Virginia only 6 weeks before Rogers died in May, 1909 following his only inspection trip on the newly completed railroad. That June, Booker T. Washington made a whistle-stop speaking tour on VGN, traveling in Rogers' private car, Dixie, and later revealing that Rogers had been instrumental in funding many small country schools and institutions of higher education in the South for the betterment of Negroes.
VGN operated over more modern alignments than C&O and NW, and its track was built to the highest standards. It provided major competition for coal traffic to C&O and NW. The 600-mile (970 km) VGN followed Rogers' philosophy throughout its profitable history, earning the nickname "Richest Little Railroad in the World." It operated some of the largest and most powerful steam, electric, and diesel locomotives.
The VGN electrified 134 miles (216 km) of its route between 1922 and 1926 at a cost of $15 million, and had its own power plant at Narrows, Virginia. It shared electrical resources with N&W from 1925 to 1950, when NW discontinued its own, shorter, electrified section through the Elkhorn Tunnel and Great Flat Top Mountain region. The VGN track was de-electrified in 1962, after the NW-VGN merger.
The Modern Railroad Merger Era 1960–1982[edit]
When VGN was finally merged into NW in 1959, it is widely believed that the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) approval began a merger movement and a modernization of the entire US railroad industry[citation needed]. In 1964, the former Wabash; Nickel Plate; Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway; and Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad were brought into the system in one of the most complex mergers of the era. This consolidation, enhanced by the addition of a more direct route to Chicago, Illinois in 1976, positioned NW as an important Midwestern railroad, providing direct single-line service between the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Great Lakes and Mississippi River on the other.
In the late 1960s, NW acquired Dereco, a holding company that owned the Delaware & Hudson (D&H) and Erie Lackawanna (EL) railroads. However, Dereco's troubled railroads were not merged into NW. EL eventually joined Conrail and D&H was sold to Guilford Transportation Industries.
On September 1, 1981, NW acquired Illinois Terminal Railroad. NW was also a major investor in Piedmont Airlines.
States that the Norfolk and Western operated in 1955[edit]
North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio
States that the Norfolk and Western operated in 1970[edit]
North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Illinois
By 1996, N&W ran most of the Midwest and Eastern states. Many N&W lines by 1998 were abandoned and some of them were never used again. However, the Norfolk to Bluefield line still exists but traffic has slowed because of its 12 mile 1.2% grade.
Autoracks: competing with trucking[edit]
In the 1950s, Canadian National Railway (CN) introduced a group of innovative bi-level autorack railcars. These autoracks had end doors and were very large by the standards of the time; at 75 feet (23 m) long, each autorack could carry 8 completed automobiles. These autoracks were a big success and helped lead to the development of today's fully enclosed autoracks. Tri-level autoracks were developed in the 1970s.
During the 1960s, autoracks took over rail transportation of newly completed automobiles in North America. They carried more cars in the same space and were easier to load and unload than the boxcars formerly used. Ever-larger auto carriers and specialized terminals were developed by NW and other railroads.
The railroads were able to provide lower costs and greater protection from in-transit damage, such as that which may occur due to vandalism or weather and traffic conditions on unenclosed truck trailers. Using the autoracks, the railroads became the primary long-distance transporter of completed automobiles, one of few commodities where the industry has been able to overcome trucking in competition.
Becoming part of Norfolk Southern[edit]
In the early 1980s, the profitable NW combined forces with Southern Railway, another profitable company, to form today's Norfolk Southern and compete more effectively with CSX Transportation, itself a combination of smaller railroads in the eastern half of the United States.
Today, much of the former NW is a vital portion of Norfolk Southern Corporation, a Fortune 500 company which has its headquarters in Norfolk, only a short distance from the coal piers at Lambert's Point.
Passenger Operations[edit]
While the Powhatan Arrow was NW's flagship passenger train, sporting a regal maroon livery with gold trim and hauled by a J Class 4-8-4 Northern Type steam locomotive, the railroad also operated a number of other passenger trains. These include:
- The Cavalier (Norfolk–Cincinnati/Columbus).
- The Pocahontas (Norfolk–Cincinnati/Columbus).
- Trains 1 and 2 (Roanoke–Hagerstown, Maryland).
The NW also participated in four inter-line passenger trains:
- Cannon Ball (New York – Norfolk in conjunction with Pennsylvania Railroad, Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad).
- Birmingham Special (New York – Birmingham, Alabama in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Railroad and Southern Railway).
- The Pelican (New York – New Orleans in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Railroad and Southern Railway).
- The Tennessean (New York – Memphis in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Railroad and Southern Railway).
The last three were unusual in that the Southern Railway operated the trains, either side of the NW stretch between Lynchburg and Bristol.
Steam locomotive types on the Norfolk and Western[edit]
- Class A: 2-6-6-4 simple articulated Top Speed: 75mph
- Class Y1 though Y6b: 2-8-8-2 Mallet Top Speed: 60mph
- Class J: 4-8-4 Top Speed: 100mph
- Classes K1 and K2: 4-8-2 Mountain Top Speed: 80mph
- Classes M, M1, and M2: 4-8-0 Mastodon Top Speed: 55mph
- Class S1: 0-8-0 switchers Top Speed: 50mph
- Class Z1: 2-6-6-2 Top Speed: 60mph
Surviving steam locomotives[edit]
Several of NW's famous steam locomotives, including J class #611 and A class #1218 were used in steam excursion trip services into the 1990s under the leadership of Norfolk Southern's first president, Robert B. Claytor. They are now on static display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) in Roanoke. N&W class Y6a #2156 resides at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. Class M #475 continues to operate at the Strasburg Railroad in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.[4]
Leaders of the Norfolk and Western[edit]
Of the thousands of men and women who made the AM&O and NW work and grow after the American Civil War, the following people were the railroad's top leaders.
- William Mahone
- George F. Tyler
- Henry Fink
- Frederick J. Kimball
- Lucius E. Johnson
- Nicholas D. Maher
- William J. Jenks
- Arthur C. Needles
- Robert Hall Smith
- Stuart T. Saunders
- Herman H. Pevler
- John P. Fishwick
- Robert B. Claytor
See also[edit]
- List of Norfolk and Western Railway locomotives
- Norfolk and Western 611 - Class J 4-8-4
- Norfolk & Western 475 – Class M 4-8-0
- Norfolk & Western 1218 – Class A 2-6-6-4
- Norfolk & Western 2156 – Class Y6a 2-8-8-2
- Dinwiddie County Pullman Car
- ^ "Frederick Kimball". Retrieved 6 January 2013.
- ^ "Millionaire Coal Town-Historic Bramwell".
- ^ Norfolk and Western Railway (1939). Along the Right of Way.
- ^ Norfolk & Western Historical Society
Further reading[edit]
- Blake, Nelson Morehouse, Phd. (1935) William Mahone of Virginia; Soldier and Political Insurgent, Garrett and Massie Publishers; Richmond, VA
- Dixon, Thomas W, Jr., (1994) Appalachian Coal Mines & Railroads. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-883089-08-5
- Dow, Andrew (1999) Norfolk and Western Coal Cars: From 1881 to 1998. Motorbooks Intl. ISBN 978-1-883089-36-8
- Ferrell, Mallory Hope, (2007) Norfolk & Western: Steam's Last Stand. Hundman Publishing ISBN 978-0-945434-60-3
- Huddleston, Eugene L, Ph.D. (2002) Appalachian Conquest, Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-883089-79-4
- Lambie, Joseph T., (1954) From Mine to Market: The History of Coal Transportation on the Norfolk and Western Railway New York: New York University Press
- Lewis, Lloyd D., (1992) The Virginian Era. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc.
- Lewis, Lloyd D., (1994) Norfolk & Western and Virginian Railways in Color by H. Reid. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-883089-09-3
- King, Ed, (1997) Norfolk & Western in the Appalachians: From the Blue Ridge to the Big Sandy. Kalmbach Publishing Company ISBN 978-0-89024-316-9
- Middleton, William D., (1974) (1st ed.). When The Steam Railroads Electrified Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Co. ISBN 0-89024-028-0
- Prince, Richard E., (1980) Norfolk & Western Railway, Pocahontas Coal Carrier, R.E. Prince; Millard, NE
- Reid, H. (1961)., The Virginian Railway (1st ed.). Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Co.
- Reisweber, Kurt, (1995) Virginian Rails 1953–1993 (1st ed.) Old Line Graphics. ISBN 1-879314-11-8
- Striplin, E. F. Pat., (1981) The Norfolk & Western: a history Roanoke, Va. : Norfolk and Western Railway Co. ISBN 0-9633254-6-9
- Traser, Donald R., (1998) Virginia Railway Depots. Old Dominion Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. ISBN 0-9669906-0-9
- Wiley, Aubrey and Wallace, Conley (1985). The Virginian Railway Handbook. Lynchburg, Virginia: W-W Publications.
- Wardeb, William E., (1996) Norfolk & Western Railway's Magnificent Mallets: The Y Class 2-8-8-2s . Motorbooks International
- Cuthriell, N.L. (1956) Coal On The Move Via The Virginian Railway, reprinted with permission of Norfolk Southern Corporation in 1995 by Norfolk & Western Historical Society, Inc. ISBN 0-9633254-2-6
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Norfolk and Western Railway |
- Norfolk and Western Railway
- Predecessors of the Norfolk Southern Railway
- Former Class I railroads in the United States
- Defunct Illinois railroads
- Defunct Indiana railroads
- Defunct Iowa railroads
- Defunct Kentucky railroads
- Defunct Maryland railroads
- Defunct Michigan railroads
- Defunct Missouri railroads
- Defunct New York railroads
- Defunct North Carolina railroads
- Defunct Ohio railroads
- Defunct Pennsylvania railroads
- Defunct Virginia railroads
- Defunct West Virginia railroads
- Railroads in the Chicago Switching District
- Railway companies established in 1896
- Railway companies disestablished in 1998
- Defunct Ontario railways


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pretentious art 7777 Responses
Last post: 1 year, 1 month ago | Thread started: Nov 29, 11, 4:23 p.m.
- loool
is today's art overrated and pretentious?
In time when visual arts are everywhere and we are bombed with rich visual content everywhere we go, I am still "doing the effort" and go to the gallery (because I think it is ok to the artist who made the exhibition) and all I see is a bunch of artists who make some kind of arrogant and egoistic work giving nothing back to me as a visitor...
I don't really expect anything genius, or revolutionary in return, but I don't really see the point in going to the gallery only to see two lines in the 100 cubic meters...and after that I am feeling like an idiot...artists are not putting effort at all...or I don't get this...
- Nov 29, 11, 4:23 p.m. – Permalink
- idiots
I think the only reason we think more so now is because of the increase in artists, available mediums, and gallery spaces.
we were raised on fine art and sculpture, oil, and metal, this was the norm until we grew into ourselves realizing our likes and dislikes which caused us to realize that "art" is much more broad a term than how we were raised.
i try to find the effort in something and appreciate that.
I saw a piece hanging at the museum of natural history I think in SF, it was thousands of thin strips of tape, taped to itself in a circle with the adhesive out so they would all stick together. it hung from 15 feet in the air about 20 feet wide 2 feet from the wall. All i could do was stare at it wondering why? how? and who?
now as a piece of art in my home? no. a piece of art that will last, no. but the effort and pure logistics behind the piece made it a stand out installation in my eyes, as it was 6 years ago and the only piece i remember from the visit.
art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
- Dog-earNov 29, 11, 4:34 p.m. – Permalink
- waterhouse
There are alternatives to "stuntmen." There are artists who still can move man and child alike. Whose art can change someone's life forever.
Mine was when, at 16, I first saw a Richard Serra sculpture. (Of course, one doesn't just "see" a Richard Serra work.)
- Dog-earNov 29, 11, 6:08 p.m. – Permalink
- Miguex
I am still "doing the effort" and go to the gallery (because I think it is ok to the artist who made the exhibition) and all I see is a bunch of artists who make some kind of arrogant and egoistic work giving nothing back to me as a visitor...
Some artists will speak to you, some won't. Nothing wrong with that, is just like music, I cringe when I hear MGMT on the radio, but some people love it. Same works for visual art.
If you really want to go deep:
You are saying: " all I see is a bunch of artists who make some kind of arrogant and egoistic work giving nothing back to me as a visitor..."
Perhaps that's the message, arrogance and egocentrism, (blame myspace/ facebook for that) the lack of message could be THE MESSAGE, now ...The important thing is to keep an open mind, maybe research about the show before going too, but consider all this work that you don't like, a way to make the piece that you like more valuable, if you liked everything that was out there, then none of it would stand out to you, everything would be at the same level, rendering everything meaningless (sprinkle that on the pipe too)
- Dog-earNov 29, 11, 6:22 p.m. – Permalink
- pr2
Words like "pretentious" + anything else are often used by people who wished they could comprehend but they simply have no mental ability to do so, so to save their own ego from crumbling in their own view of how smart the see themselves they start talking about "pretentious (something)."
- Dog-earNov 29, 11, 7:26 p.m. – Permalink
- ukit2
100 years ago to become an artist you were expected to master traditional drawing and painting and study for years. Now it is all, for the most part, conceptual and even if there is technical skill involved, the barrier to entry is much lower. Anyone can participate, and naturally because of that you get some good stuff and also a lot of crap.
- Dog-earNov 29, 11, 7:37 p.m. – Permalink
- loool
I am just trying to understand some of these things...the problem with me personally is that I see artists who have grants and funds and studios and publicity and shit and at the end I go to the exhibition and go home disappointed...
And the problem is definitely in me...I am not accusing anyone as ignorant, just starting to have my doubts...and I am trying very hard to avoid prejudice. When I see hardworking artist's exhibition, that is like an eyecandy to me, even if the work itself is not too interesting to me I still appreciate the effort...
But there are also the Mr. Brainwash type of artists...and that: I don't like...I know that I am a primitive rigid bastard, but that's just the way it is...
- Dog-earNov 30, 11, 2:34 a.m. – Permalink
- Projectile
Oh come on
art is worth every penny, always!!
Just fucking look at this fucking master and her fucking masterpiece!!
- Dog-earNov 30, 11, 3:33 a.m. – Permalink

subset: commoncrawl


text:
From the LaGrange Daily News, 1937.
Front Page News
Plans Accepted for New Troup County Courthouse — Plans for Troup County's new $220,000 courthouse have been virtually accepted by the Board of County Commissioners and a contract for the new edifice will probably be let sometime in January, J.J. Milam, vice chairman of the County Commissioners announced today.
Acceptance of the plans ends a long controversy over arrangement of various offices in the new building – a controversy which has drawn county officials, lawyers, the architect and the commission into several heated discussions. A few minor changes are still to be made in the plans.
The building will face north and south on the courthouse square. The County Commission will advertise for bids during the month of December.
(In an earlier October edition of the paper, LaGrange residents read the following in City Briefs:)
Judge F.P. Longley, genial justice of the peace, has it all figured out as far as the courthouse question is concerned. The judge even knows when actual work will begin and gives freely of his knowledge of such facts.
According to Judge Longley, the delay in rebuilding the courthouse is due to the fact that the commissioners do not want to bother the square as long as the turnip greens are growing there.
Judge Longley says as soon as the turnip greens have been gathered by several "interested parties," the commissioners will then build the courthouse.
All-Paved Route to be Opened Friday with Motorcade — Seeking a better understanding and a more closely-knit friendship between the two neighboring counties and towns, plans for a gigantic motorcade from LaGrange to Franklin next Friday afternoon were being whipped into shape today by the LaGrange Chamber of Commerce. Some 200 cars are expected to be in the motorcade.
Saturday will be "Franklin and Heard County Trade Day" in LaGrange. LaGrange merchants have been extended a "wide open" invitation to enter the motorcade. Floats, bearing advertising streamers, as well as cars will be admitted, and the whole theme of the occasion is "the more the merrier."
The LaGrange Junior Drum and Bugle Corps will lead the motorcade.
(The next day) Tigner Thanks All for Cooperation — Frank C. Tigner Jr., president of the LaGrange Chamber of Commerce, today thanked LaGrange, Franklin and Heard County citizens for their cooperation in making the LaGrange-Franklin motorcade yesterday a great success.
LaGrange-Greenville Road Paving Asked by Citizens — Good roads boosters of Meriwether and Troup counties met in LaGrange today and adopted a resolution requesting the state highway department pave the LaGrange-Greenville highway.
The resolution pointed out that during the past three to five years, the highway, officially designated as Highway Number 109, has been "ready for paving or other hard surface treatment" and that during that time portions of the road have been impassable during inclement weather, resulting in the complete isolation of some communities.
Members of the State Highway Board and Gov. E. D. Rivers have been mailed a copy of the resolution.
Erect Monument to Term's Origin — The term "Daughter of the Confederacy" was first used in West Point, Ga., on April 30, 1886, by Gen. John B. Gordon, when he introduced Miss Winnie Davis to the throng of people who had gathered at the railway station there to greet her distinguished father, Jefferson Davis. Davis was in route to Atlanta to deliver the dedicatory address at the unveiling of the Ben Hill monument.
Because of his feeble conditio0n, Davis was unable to speak, so General Godron presented Miss Davis as "The Daughter of the Confederacy."
Commemorating that event, the Georgia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has erected on the lawn of the Hawkes Library in West Point a boulder which bears an inscription stating that the title he used became the name of the present patriotic organization.
The West Point organization is arranging with state officers to have a dedication of the boulder at an early date.
Opportunity Seldom Overlooked — The proposed trip of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to the United States is creating quite a furor in England and America. Governors and cabinet officers are sending cordial invitations to the ex-king, exiled Duke and muchly married duchess.
High officials in London are trying to find ways and means of preventing the trip, fearing the effects of the publicity on the masses in England. The English ruling class desire that Windsor stay put in an obscure castle and its surrounding gardens, but the Duke is not satisfied to spend his life playing at mumbletypeg.
Our reaction to the affair is that we hate to see an opportunity given us Americans to make fools out of ourselves. We so seldom overlook such opportunities.
Julia Dyar, a retired journalist, is active in the Troup County Historical Society.


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When we returned from our family vacation, the freezer was bare. I polled the family about what entrées they would like over the coming weeks. The first 3 options out of my youngest's mouth were steak, lamb or veal. I think we've been feeding him TOO well on our holidays. I did pick up a flank steak and some lamb chops…after all, he is going off to college in the fall, so had to spoil him a wee bit. This was a simple marinade made with pantry items and fresh herbs from the garden…easy as can be. And the flavor combination was impeccable.
Marinated Lamb Chops…adapted from The Silver Palate Cookbook
8 lamb chops
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon minced fresh herbs (I used half rosemary and half thyme)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
In a large ziplock bag, combine vinegar, herbs, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce and sherry. Add lamb chops and zip bag, removing most of the air. Flip bag back and forth to distribute the marinade, then marinate 6 hours to overnight.
Grill to desired doneness.


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The hotel is stunning and the history fantastic. It has been done to highest standards but does suffer from not having a full bar service. Service was extremely attentive although not necessarily 'mind reading' which one might expect from a hotel of this nature. Having said that, was very good.
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- Tintagel is a unique and private hotel, situated in the heart of Colombo's most elite neighborhood. Offering 12 individually designed suites with all modern amenities and services, Tintagel is housed in a stunning heritage structure of national importance that was previously home to three of Sri Lanka's political leaders. ... more less
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com, Agoda and Priceline so you can book your Paradise Road Tintagel Colombo reservations with confidence. We help millions of travellers each month to find the perfect hotel for both holiday and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.
- Also Known As:
- Paradise Road Tintagel Colombo Hotel Colombo
- Paradise Road Tintagel Colombo Hotel


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Anonymous Customer wrote on 10-Jul-2012
Excellent. This is the first time I have ever been disappointed.
The Dolls House Emporium wrote on 10-Jul-2012
Thank you for your comment. I am sorry you are disappointed with the Diorama, I will pass your comment on to our Purchasing Manager for future use.
The Customer Service Team
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Storefront Photos
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1958 Philadelphia Stafford's Tavern-Paschall House Photo
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