The P&WV Hi-Line

[PWVJer]

P&WV Hi-Line Fans,

Over the past several weeks "Longview(VW) the current "P&WV Historical Care-taker"
has been sending-over and making available to your Hi-Line the massive P&WV Co.
record(s) collection from 1904-1964.
The material in this Historic Collection includes most of the ORIGINAL CO. RECORDS.
A vast amount(s) of Company Letters, Contracts, R.R. Operating Reports,
Drawings, Blueprints, Diagrams, Personnel and P&WV Railway Company Reports & Contracts.

Almost all of this wonderful material is in great condition, considering the newest Co.
entries are over 60 years old! As of this date,
GPS has sent 21 Large & Full... "Bankers Storage Box's" of such material.
Much of this information still needs to be placed in some kind of searchable order.
A huge daunting tasks in it's self. We are now testing Ideas on how best to choose,
present and share this information and protect the original documents.
If you have enjoyed the Hi-Line series(posts) so far,
you will really like what the future will bring.

BTW,
VW, tell the Hi-Line folks the interesting story
of how the large P&WV Archives Collection was saved ...


JR/JZ.

[Longview Station]

The way I understand it, the original W&LE Management in wanting to rent out the former Rook Office buidling during either the summer of 92 or 93 had attempted to contact a wll known P&WV Historian, H.V.W...
Original W&LE Management understood the historical value of the basement full of original P&WV/WSB/WPT records and did not want them destroyed. Being unsuccessful in finding "H.V.W.", a different approach was taken in finding the #2 man on their list, Mr. W.N.P., Jr. who I believe is part of this group. "W.N.P." met with the folks at the W&LE and was overwhelmed with the scope of their offer. A entire basement full of file cabinets of records. I think I counted roughly 160 file drawers of records.
Anyhow, "W.N.P." contacted me with the scope of the offer. The offer had restrictions, we had to make advance arrangements to meet with a W&LE contact at Rook, who would then unlock the doors for us to access the basement. There were certain days of the week that this could be done, and we had to work around this restriction.
"W.N.P." was not yet retired at this time and I was working the day shift, further complicating what was before us.
Luckily, the days we were able to access the Office basement were afternoons and I was at that time working a very early daylight shift that found me punching out at 2 P.M.
After leaving work on pre-arranged afternoons, I would meet up at Rook with the W&LE representative who unlocked the basement doors and gave me the following restrictions; "Make a pile of material you want to preserve, and we will evaluate it before releasing it".
So it went for many weeks, pre-arranged afternoon trips to Rook, a time limit of usually 2 hours each afternoon, pouring through the file cabinets, making new piles and loading up the released files...Then taking it home for safe keeping.
Most, if not all of those files were covered in 50+ years of black dust.
And most trips home I was typically covered head to toe from the dust.
After several weeks of single handly visiting Rook afternoon after afternoon, I was given notice to step up what was of interest as the visits were coming to a end as the W&LE contact person was re-assigned to Brewster and no longer would be available at Rook.
I did leave behind a few hundred Rook Train Dispatchers-Train Sheets as well as some additional information that was locked up in another room, but 8 or 10 years ago I did secure permission from the current CEO and removed the remaining blue prints that were water damaged from the leaking roof.
The remaining train sheets had disappeared.
A few boxes of early train sheets went to the N&W Historical Society in Roanoke as I had thousands of them
And some box's of records went to the Greentree Historical Society.

I've known Jerry and Jim at the Hi-Line for many years.
Jim R. is the cog that makes everything happen and a wonderful person. When I need help in digital or computer issues, Jim is just a telephone call away. Friends like Jim are few and far between.
Jerry has a direct connection to the P&WV through his father and he is a natural in wanting to share what is out there.
Between these 2 guys, this mountain of information will find the hi green signal for the main track so it is available for everyone.

It is because of these 2 gentlemen I have decided to hand over these records so something positive in all this will take place. I simply can't do it myself, there is just way to much information.

Jerry says 21 box's so far...
There is still another 10 or 15 more ...

And we can't forget Mr. W.N.P. who knew what was available to us, and knowing he couldn't do it all himself, opened the door for help thus saving a wealth of information for all of us to enjoy.

VW

[tomw]

All I can say is THANK YOU. For doing what has been done and preserving the history of the P&WV
Tom Wilson

[summit_cut]

Yes thank you very much for saving histirical material that otherwise may have been thrown away. It gives my generation the chance to relive the P&WV of yore. Thank You again and I will be looking forward to it.

Frank