This is a big day for the ET&WNC. This picture, made in front of the Legion Street shop, shows the railroad's first standard gauge locomotive, Number 828, beside the old standby yard engine, narrow-gauge number 7.
The railroad bought the 828 to help with the huge upturn in standard gauge business after the Germans built the rayon plants at Bemberg. The 828 was a disaster from the beginning. It broke rails and spent more time on the ground than it did on the railroad. And it would not make steam at all. Many times it would just die on the mainline for running out of steam. The best fireman the railroad ever had was my old friend Clyde "Tighteye" Simerly. I heard him say many times that "If hard would woulda killed me I'd-a died on 828".
This picture was made by Corrie Ford on her Kodak but was in both her collection and Mr. Crumley's scrapbooks. From the left we have Charlie Carver, Grover Miller, Clarence "Brownie" Allison, Chester Ford (not working that day-look at those nice clothes), Monk Bayless, Cy Crumley, and "Tighteye" Simerly. Don't know who that is up in the cab of the 7. The tender tank of old 828 still exists in Duffield, Virginia. |