On this day, May 12, 1968, C&O passenger train the Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) made its final run.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Sat May 13, 2023, 08:11 AM - Edit history (1)

Fri May 13, 2022: On May 12, 1968, C&O passenger train the Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) made its final run.

Wed May 12, 2021: On this day, May 12, 1968, C&O passenger train the Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) made its final run.

The Sportsman also made its last run in May 1968, but I don't know if it was on the same day.

Fast Flying Virginian

First service: May 11, 1889
Last service: May 12, 1968
Former operator(s): Chesapeake and Ohio Railway

Route
Start: Washington, D.C. and Phoebus, Virginia
End: Cincinnati, Ohio
Distance travelled: 666 miles (1,072 km) (Washington-Cincinnati route)
Train number(s): 3 (westbound) / 6 (eastbound)

The Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) was a named passenger train of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.

The FFV was inaugurated on May 11, 1889, and ran until May 12, 1968; this was the longest running C&O named passenger train. The train operated on a daily daytime schedule, being carried from Jersey City, NJ—Penn Station in Manhattan was years in the future—as a Pennsylvania Railroad train to Washington, D.C. (after 1908 to Washington Union Station) and, as a C&O train, from there to Cincinnati, OH (after 1933 calling at the Union Terminal). The train operated westbound as #3 and eastbound as #4. The train ran behind C&O locomotives beyond Washington, DC, first to Alexandria, VA over trackage rights from the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac to Alexandria, VA, there changing to tracks of the Southern Railway (now part of Norfolk Southern). In Orange, VA, C&O trains left Southern property to turn onto what is now a transfer track between Orange and Gordonsville, VA, but this track was originally part of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, which continued through Gordonsville on to Charlottesville. This segment of track became part of the C&O, as did the track through Gordonsville, which before becoming part of the C&O was the Virginia Central Railroad. Northeast of Orange, portions of the Orange and Alexandria railroad became part of the Southern; the present-day Norfolk Southern tracks between Orange and Charlottesville were built after the Civil War. When the FFV was new, the transfer track from Southern property at Orange joined the C&O main line from Phoebus, Virginia at Gordonsville, and proceeded on them to Charlottesville. About a mile west of the C&O station in Charlottesville, the C&O tracks crossed the Southern line. The Southern station was, and is, a union station, with platforms for both main lines; a few C&O trains, but not seemingly the FFV, stopped at both stations. From Charlottesville, the FFV continued west over the Blue Ridge Mountains and North Mountain to West Virginia, along the New River Gorge, and finally crossing the Ohio River into Ohio at Cincinnati. (The "Ohio" of "Chesapeake and Ohio" is the river, not the state.)

{snip}

Sportsman (train)


Sportsman one-time logo in 1948 C&O timetable

Overview
First service: 1930
Last service: 1968

Route
Start: Washington, D.C. and Phoebus, Virginia, latter shortened in final decade to Newport News
End: Detroit, Michigan, Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati
Service frequency: Daily
Train number(s): Detroit-Phoebus: 46 (eastbound), 47 (westbound)
Cincinnati-Washington, D.C.: 4 (eastbound), 5 (westbound)

The Sportsman was a named passenger night train of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. It was the Chesapeake & Ohio's long-standing train bound for Detroit from Washington, D.C. and Phoebus, Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay, opposite Norfolk, Virginia. It was unique among C&O trains for its route north from the C&O mainline in southern Ohio. For most of its years it had a secondary western terminus in Louisville at its Central Station.

{snip}

Color - C&O E8 #4021 and mate lead westbound train #5/47, the Sportsman, out of Charlottesville, Va.'s Union Station, just crossing the Sothern Railway's Washington-Atlanta main line ca. 1954. In that era, C&O trains made two stops in Charlottesville, one at C&O's own depot on Main Street and a second at Union Station, near UVA. Added interest here is that the RPO, three cars back, is still in green paint.

Source: https://archives.cohs.org/

In this Chesapeake & Ohio publicity photo train #3, the westbound "Fast Flying Virginian," rolls to a stop at Russell, Kentucky on its way to Cincinnati at 11:05 AM on a summer's day in the 1950's.

Source: https://www.american-rails.com/ffv.html

Mac Wiseman~The Wreck of the C&O #5.mp4
4,079 views • Nov 28, 2010

rossshowalter
7 subscribers

Same thing, but with lyrics:

The Wreck of the C&O No 5 Mac Wiseman with Lyrics
1,113 views • Feb 16, 2020

billbilladaadaa a
1.61K subscribers

The Wreck of the C&O No 5 Mac Wiseman with Lyrics

[cyclonefence]

1. C&O fans might enjoy knowing

that the yard men at Hinton WV referred jokingly to the FFV as the "fast-flying vestibule"--a little railroad humor for you guys. My grandfather WH Anderson was an engineer for the C&O, and those guys sneered at all the fancy names the company gave to its trains.

My grandfather was murdered when the boiler on his steam engine exploded.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. This one?

http://railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=12877

[cyclonefence]

3. Yes

My grandfather's last known words were in response to the question, "Did they fix that water pump?" He said "They didn't do a goddam thing."

You can tell from the report that there had been problems with this boiler for a long time, and many attempts had been made to repair it.

My grandfather was 62, and was an experienced and respected engineer, and the C&O killed him. My grandmother accepted a settlement of $10,000 before the government report was released, not knowing if the accident had been the engineer's fault.