What freight train numbers were used on the Southern's Danville Division in 1903?
Question:
I am preliminarily researching the context of the 27 September 1903 wreck, at Danville, VA, USA, of Train 97, a southbound fast mail that left Washington, DC, approximately one hour late that day; with Engineer J. A. Brody at the throttle, this train, 30 minutes late passing Cherrystone Creek, barrel-rolled off the track just north of Stillhouse Creek and crashed in the creek alongside the trestle. It appears that Brody, who normally handled drag freights on the Southern Railway System's Danville Division (between Monroe, VA, and Spencer Terminal, NC) and apparently had no previous experience with a Baldwin passenger ten-wheeler consistent with SOU #1102, was pressed into service when another Southern engineer who was qualified on ten-wheelers fell too ill to make the run---a similar situation to J. L. Jones' double-back on the Illinois Central on 29-30 April 1900 to put the IC's Train 1 into Canton, MS, on time from a 90-minute late start at Memphis, TN (only Jones was a qualified passenger engineer who knew where he could safely run a train at 90 mph on the Memphis-Canton line). At the wreck itself, Brody and both firemen were found crushed to death beneath #1102, apparently having been thrown from the cab during the derailment; most of the postal clerks and express messengers were either killed outright in the crash into Stillhouse Creek or scalded to death by the steam from #1102 while trapped in the crushed remains of the mail and express cars.
At least one songwriter of the early 20th Century AD in the Danville, VA, area (the true origin of the song "The Wreck on the Southern Old 97" is in dispute) apparently got Brody's regular train number incorrect, as #38 was assigned to the northbound Crescent Limited (as was #97 to the southbound fast mail and express). I am assuming that the Southern ran numerous freight trains on the Danville Division to convey coal and mineral concentrates from local mines, livestock and farm produce, industrial raw materials and finished products, &c., from source to market; freight was (and still is) the railroad's principal business. What I am requesting is information on the Danville Division's freight timetables and what trains by number would have been assigned to the runs specified therein.
Answer:
You might try contacting the Southern Railway Historical Association. They will often post questions like this to their members. The link is http://www.srha.net/
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