This one stings me in my heart. For a brief period in 1979 I was MM in Alexandria, VA for SOU. Delaplane was part of my territory. One afternoon, around 5:30 PM the Chief in Greensboro, NC called to say the local on the Harrisonburg branch had derailed two (maybe three) cars at Delaplane. I asked if we could wait until the next day to rerail them since there were no other trains on the branch and the locomotive was not trapped behind the derailed cars. Of course, the answer was NO, the main line was blocked. (This was not a main line at the time). I called a couple of Carmen, on overtime, and we set out for Delaplane. At Manassas, I could hear the local switching. Hence, no power at Delaplane to help us rerail the cars. We arrived at Deleplane around 7:30PM and waited until about 8:00am the next morning for a locomotive to help us pull the cars back on. This took us less than an hour after the power arrived. Railroading at its best!
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