By LARRY HYPES
Bluefield’s announced intention to promote railroad heritage and the tremendous outpouring of support for last weekend’s AMTRAK rail excursion signals the likelihood of a large crowd for the 21st annual Model Train Show at the Bluefield Auditorium on Stadium Drive all day today and Sunday afternoon.
Pocahontas National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) president Kelley Massie has again worked with secretary-treasurer Charlie Venable to coordinate the show, which has become one of the premier events not only in the region but on the East Coast. Modelers, hobby enthusiasts, and model train suppliers from several states bring nearly any kind of item imaginable to the extravaganza.
As many of you know from past experience, children of all ages seem to glow watching dozens of exhibits. Steam trains pulling coal, passenger trains, towns, factories, mountains, and rivers along a dazzling display of tiny rail lines are simply delightful. There are all different sizes of rolling stock, nearly all of it for sale someplace, and videos with color and sound enough to suit nearly all rail aficionados.
Pocahontas chapter newsletter editor Dan Mulhearn will be the “dispatcher” most responsible for keeping all those wonderful trains rolling smoothly around the tremendous variety of layouts which will fill much of the area in both the gymnasium side and also the meeting room area. There are literally thousands of square feet of railroad equaling many miles of territory and it is just too much to describe in this small space.
All the work of watching, walking, and observing will make nearly everyone hungry or thirsty and Brenda Venable and Debbie Massie are the ladies who have worked so effectively these past two decades-plus providing home-cooked concessions so enjoyed by the large crowds who attend the train show each November.
Kelley, along with local media man and train photographer (as well as model railroader) Bob Redd were both out last week when the “real” passenger train rolled in and they are both going to be part of the action this weekend. Bob has an extensive collection of material, much of it from McDowell County and southern West Virginia and he is always happy to share stories and material with fellow train buffs.
A special treat this year will be author Thomas W. Dixon Jr., who will be available to autograph copies of his interesting book on West Virginia railroads. Kelley told me the book features pictures and facts from both Bluefield and Princeton, with over 200 photos overall of the state operations generally reviewing the years between 1930-1950, which were the “golden years” of steam for the N & W and the Virginian, among others.
There is also a new book about the great Norfolk & Western passenger train, the Powhatan Arrow, beginning with its opening run in 1946 right through its final journey in ’69. The Arrow was famed for its fast schedule, a 677-mile jaunt from Norfolk to Cincinnati, and its plush accommodations. Restaurants like Jimmie’s here on the Avenue across from the train station featured fresh seafood years ago when the fast trains were humming through town in their streamlined glory.
Massie is an outgoing, friendly fellow and will be circulating all weekend throughout the building to speak with visitors, answer questions, and like the rest of us, admire the terrific layouts on display. He says one great exhibit among the many in the ’09 show will be a circus train scene reminiscent of the days when the circus train came into the Bluefield rail yard, prior to the thrilling parade through the Summit City and out to the City Park where the circus set up for years.
Massie concludes that all of the PRHS members have an absolute appreciation of railroad history and their goal is to share that spirit of model railroading with individuals of all ages on one weekend a year here in the great rail town of Bluefield. Local historians know that Bluefield was designed as the local distribution center for more than 100 area coal towns. It was created to serve the great Pocahontas coalfields, opened up in 1883 when the first car of coal was shipped from Pocahontas to Norfolk. Only a few months before, the first railroad line in the area was completed from Radford into Tazewell County on the banks of Laurel Creek to begin what has turned into a century of industry in Four Seasons Country. Bluefield was incorporated in 1889 as the region’s biggest and best railroad yard in the southern coal fields, with its famous “hump” to ease the transition of cars on their various journeys.
So, if at all possible, let’s not only help the city with its effort to develop renewed interest into local history but to just enjoy a few hours of make believe when the iron horse puffed and snorted its way into our mountains.
All aboard!
Larry Hypes is a teacher at Tazewell High School and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph.
