Shirley Harless Interview

Shirley Harless by Josh Havens

"A lot of people rode the train as far as Bastain and then as far as Narrows.  The train carried all kinds of freight, they carried everything from chicken, livestock, feed, wire, uh, caskets, just about anything that you could think of, they would, uh, would deliver there to the depot.  I rode the train many times to my cousin's at Chapel--that's near Narrows, Virginia. It was great fun for me, I wasn't too old, but I used to like to go and, I'd get off down there at a church. I remember I used to be so scared though, when I'd go down Wolf Creek at those rocks sticking out at the windows, ha, ha, it scared me, and I'd dodge I'd be afraid I was gonna be hit by a big rock! Ha, ha! And when I'd get down to the church, when I'd get off, I'd have to uh, walk a swinging bridge across Wolf Creek to get to the other side.  I’m not quite sure how much it cost to ride It though.  I knew a lot of people like the engineer on that train was a Mr. Bud Hale from Narrows, and the other people that worked on there was a Mr. Clyde Coeburn, a Mr. Juan McGinnley, a Mr. Tom Wall, a Mr. S. Robinson, and a Mr. Bill Hail. And the train consisted of a one number three mobile locomotive, a one combination passenger and baggage car, a few freight cars and then they'd daily run from Narrows to Bastain and 'round back to Narrows again.  The train used to come everyday.  Whenever the train came people were real excited, when it come; you could see the steam rise as it came, where you go down Wolf Creek now, but the first bridge there where you go up to Deer Run Estates, uh, you could see the steam from it as it came up through there, and it was very exciting."