FlanaryRon-SOU3017 EB-BigStoneGapVA-frist train from WentzMine-8-2-1967
“The Strike”
For more than a year, Westmoreland Coal Company had been developing a new mine above Stonega, Va. The new facility would feed into a state-of-the-art coal preparation (or “washing”) plant to remove impurities before being loaded into rail cars using a flood loader. The new mine and plant were named “Wentz,” to honor one of the more influential families in the corporate leadership chain for Westmoreland, and its predecessor in southwestern Virginia, the Stonega Coke & Coal Company. Developed at a capital cost of $6.5 million in 1967 ($70 million in current dollars). Initially, the high quality metallurgical coal from Wentz would be destined for U.S. Steel’s Ensley Works near Birmingham.
All this progress was to be celebrated in the pages of Southern Railway’s company magazine, “Ties.” The first train to be loaded at Wentz would happen on the morning of August 2, 1967. Four SD35s were washed for the occasion, and staff writers and photographers were dispatched to the facility.
Obviously not by coincidence, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and Firemen (BLF&E) called a strike at 12:01 AM on the big day of the first train. The Interstate Railroad had not agreed to Decision 282 from 1963 that allowed for the elimination of locomotive firemen by attrition. All other major railroads had (including the Interstate’s parent, Southern Railway). With all operations of both the Interstate, and Southern’s Appalachia district based at the small (but very busy) yard at Andover, Va., the picket lines met the union employees of both railroads. No one crossed, of course, so the loading of the train at the new mine at Wentz was handled by an officer crew.
The strike would last nearly five months before settlement on December 22, 1967. Earlier—on October 29th—a dynamite blast under a 51-car coal train at a small trestle across the South Fork of Powell River near “Furnace Dip” in Big Stone Gap turned the strike in an ugly direction. Several cars, plus the caboose, were derailed, and dragging equipment damaged a quarter mile of track. Thankfully there were no casualties. The perpetrators were later apprehended by the FBI, charged, and convicted. All were former Southern or Interstate employees. They would never work for the railroad again.
Going back to the first Wentz train on August 2, 1967, I was alerted by a friend that morning of the strike, and the movement of that first train toward Birmingham. A Southern union road crew had been called and driven to the still-open depot at Big Stone Gap, Va. to relieve the officer crew. I was standing off to the side with my 35mm camera as a conference with the crew (and probably their local union chairman) was held. I’m not sure what was said, but after several minutes the management crew kicked off the brakes and departed, and the union crew members would be sent home---for a very long “vacation.”
None of that is apparent in this photo except the sense that something is amiss. No one is smiling. There’s no hint at the violence that would come, but clearly this is a textbook case of a management-labor stare down. I framed a few shots of train 82 with four clean SD35s, 51 loaded “Big Red” hoppers, and a caboose and went on to do other things that day.
The article on Wentz appeared in the October 1967 issue of “Ties,” but of course there was no mention of the strike. The narrative and accompanying photos were informative and upbeat about the future of the Appalachian coal industry---and the railroads that carried their commodity to market.
FlanaryRon-SOU3017 EB-BigStoneGapVA-frist train from WentzMine-8-2-1967
“The Strike”
For more than a year, Westmoreland Coal Company had been developing a new mine above Stonega, Va. The new facility would feed into a state-of-the-art coal preparation (or “washing”) plant to remove impurities before being loaded into rail cars using a flood loader. The new mine and plant were named “Wentz,” to honor one of the more influential families in the corporate leadership chain for Westmoreland, and its predecessor in southwestern Virginia, the Stonega Coke & Coal Company. Developed at a capital cost of $6.5 million in 1967 ($70 million in current dollars). Initially, the high quality metallurgical coal from Wentz would be destined for U.S. Steel’s Ensley Works near Birmingham.
All this progress was to be celebrated in the pages of Southern Railway’s company magazine, “Ties.” The first train to be loaded at Wentz would happen on the morning of August 2, 1967. Four SD35s were washed for the occasion, and staff writers and photographers were dispatched to the facility.
Obviously not by coincidence, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and Firemen (BLF&E) called a strike at 12:01 AM on the big day of the first train. The Interstate Railroad had not agreed to Decision 282 from 1963 that allowed for the elimination of locomotive firemen by attrition. All other major railroads had (including the Interstate’s parent, Southern Railway). With all operations of both the Interstate, and Southern’s Appalachia district based at the small (but very busy) yard at Andover, Va., the picket lines met the union employees of both railroads. No one crossed, of course, so the loading of the train at the new mine at Wentz was handled by an officer crew.
The strike would last nearly five months before settlement on December 22, 1967. Earlier—on October 29th—a dynamite blast under a 51-car coal train at a small trestle across the South Fork of Powell River near “Furnace Dip” in Big Stone Gap turned the strike in an ugly direction. Several cars, plus the caboose, were derailed, and dragging equipment damaged a quarter mile of track. Thankfully there were no casualties. The perpetrators were later apprehended by the FBI, charged, and convicted. All were former Southern or Interstate employees. They would never work for the railroad again.
Going back to the first Wentz train on August 2, 1967, I was alerted by a friend that morning of the strike, and the movement of that first train toward Birmingham. A Southern union road crew had been called and driven to the still-open depot at Big Stone Gap, Va. to relieve the officer crew. I was standing off to the side with my 35mm camera as a conference with the crew (and probably their local union chairman) was held. I’m not sure what was said, but after several minutes the management crew kicked off the brakes and departed, and the union crew members would be sent home---for a very long “vacation.”
None of that is apparent in this photo except the sense that something is amiss. No one is smiling. There’s no hint at the violence that would come, but clearly this is a textbook case of a management-labor stare down. I framed a few shots of train 82 with four clean SD35s, 51 loaded “Big Red” hoppers, and a caboose and went on to do other things that day.
The article on Wentz appeared in the October 1967 issue of “Ties,” but of course there was no mention of the strike. The narrative and accompanying photos were informative and upbeat about the future of the Appalachian coal industry---and the railroads that carried their commodity to market.