There were four trains daily between Hagerstown & Roanoke in the 1930s. The trains had numbers, not names - they were # 1 & # 2 & # 13 & # 14. The South bound trains carry the "odd" numbers & the North bound trains were identified by "even" numbers. Norfolk Southern still uses this ID system for their freight trains today, however; the four numbers listed above are no longer used.
All of these trains were known by the "local folks" as the New York train. It carried cars from the Deep South to Roanoke then Hagerstown where the N&W engines were removed & the Pennsylvania engines would connect & pull the train to Harrisburg, PA, then to Philadelphia & on to NY City. The night trains (1 & 2) carried a sleeping car so you go to bed in Roanoke & get awake in PA or NYC. Many folks rode this train in the 1920's until after WWII when autos became affordable & highways were improved. A timetable, dated May 3, 1931, is among the last listing N&W trains Nos. 27 and 28, which also provided passenger service. Soon after these trains were dropped, leaving Nos 13 and 14 providing daylight service in the Shenandoah Valley. (Mason Cooper collection) In 1941 train no. 14 was a Class K1 4-8-2 "Mountain" steam locomotive, labeled No. 100. According to Mason Y Cooper, an authority on the Shenandoah Division, passenger service on this line relied on the 4-8-2 type for the latter part of its existence. The first tender carried 9,000 US gallons of water and 14 tons of coal; total weight was 146,700 lb. Over time, of course, the tender's capacity and weight more than doubled as is documented in the specs. Below is a photograph of engine 127 arriving in Roanoke, Virgina at about 7:30 in the morning, having traveled South from Hagerstown, Maryland.
 Photo by Bob Krone, 11 Nov 1956.
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