In early November 1962 the notion of the Wilmington &
Western Railroad was just a dream. Even though the fledgling Historic Red Clay
Valley owned locomotives and passenger cars, the B&O Railroad was unwilling
to allow tourist trains to operate on its Landenberg Branch. In an effort to
convince the B&O to allow tourist trains on its tracks, W&W
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From the Morning News 11/13/1962 |
Later, W&W volunteer Tim Cronin recounted how one day
Pete Steele stopped by during a work session and explained that Carvel was
actually calling in a huge favor. The Pittsburgh Consolidated Coal Company was
planning on building a coal slurry pipeline that would connect the coal mines
of West Virginia to the eastern seaboard in Delaware. In West Virginia there
was concern about taking so much water out of the state’s rivers and in
Delaware there was concern over where the dirty water from the slurry would end
up and how it would be cleaned. The railroads and their unions opposed this
pipeline, knowing it would mean a huge loss of business. The battle pitted
railroads against their biggest customers and the railroad unions against the
coal miners’ unions. Amidst this tempest of controversy, the large and powerful
coal company kept the process moving along. It was Turnbull who lead the
B&O’s effort to fight the pipeline and it was Delaware, under the
leadership of Turnbull’s old college friend Gov. Carvel, that refused to allow
permits for the pipeline to be built.
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Governor Elbert N. Carvel From the Delaware Public Archives |
The Wilmington & Western Railroad operated its first steam-powered passenger train through the Red Clay Valley on Memorial Day Weekend in 1966 and continues as Delaware's only full-size historic railroad. The men who met that day in 1962 have all passed on but their legacy carries on. More info on the Wilmington & Western RR can be found online at WWRR.COM.
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W&W No. 58 at Ashland, Del 5-25-2019 Photo by Tom Gears |
Tom, Being a member & supporter of HRCV I found this fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThanks, John Pulci