Related Records

1. Letter (handwritten) - September 13, 2000

   Handwritten note/letter from a retired N & W fireman to O. Winston Link accompanying recent articles published in area newspapers. In the note the writer thanks Mr. lInk for the "love and joy you have brought to the people of this world of trains".

   Record Type: Archive

   
2. Train No. 17, The Birmingham Special, Gets a Highball - Train No. 17, the Birmingham Special, gets a Highball at rural Retreat, Virginia. In what has become one of Winston Link's best known photos, station agent J.L. Akers gives the Birmingham Special a highball, the signal to proceed, at Rural Retreat. The date is December 27, 1957, and steam powered passenger service ended on the Bristol line of the Radford Division less than a week later. The Birmingham Special would have passed through Rural Retreat about 11:30 p.m. The movement of the train from left to right in the picture cuts off a major source of light, so one side of the station is in almost complete darkness, which emphasizes the drama of the figure giving the engineer the signal to proceed. Link originally set up here to photograph Train No. 42, The Pelican, eastbound from New Orleans, Louisiana to New York City, which, moving in the opposite direction, stopped in rural Retreat at 9:43 p.m. This was the train Link recorded in his most famous sound sequence of Christmas carols coming from the Lutheran Church as The Pelican arrived and departed.

   OWL2002.08.23

   Record Type: Photo