Crewe is located in Nottoway
County. Nottoway County was
formed by roughly dividing Amelia County directly north of Nottoway
Courthouse. The division process occurred in 1789 with the establishment
of a Court house in Hendersonville, which would have been about a mile
west of the current location of the Nottoway county court house.
Progress, pushing from the
coastal regions, developed railroads to reach markets and suppliers in the
west. The Southside railroad passed through Blackstone and Crewe on its
way to Roanoke and beyond. By the late 1880’s, now consolidated into the
Norfolk Western Railroad, organized
itself into multiple divisions of equal mileage.
Those divisions were
headquartered at Bluefield, Radford, Roanoke, and at some point halfway
between Roanoke and Norfolk. Selection of the fourth division headquarters
was not too difficult. Three main concerns were: A halfway point between
Roanoke and Norfolk, an area of relatively level land, and, an adequate
water supply for steam.
Along the tracks were sidings or
spurs to provide space for a train to stop to refuel with wood and water.
These stops were located about twenty miles apart.
One of these stops was Robertson Switch, four miles from the small
town of Burkeville, was considered.
The area seemed flat enough and there was adequate water nearby.
The chosen land was roughly halfway
between Roanoke and Norfolk. Most of the land was acquired from the
Robertson family, 137 acres at $12/acre. Surveyors and civil engineers
were brought in from various places with a Major Hugar coming from
England.
From the outset, the railroad
recognized that an operation of the magnitude that they were building
would demand a support community. They envisioned that all of their new
facilities would employ several hundred skilled people, many of whom would
be family men. Along with purchasing land for the shops and marshalling
yards, land was purchased for a support town. The surveyors’ and civil
engineers laid out streets, lots and even parks. Luckily, within the area
laid out for the town, there were a number of surface springs that would
support a community with no water system. Crewe was one of the first
“planned from scratch” communities in the country. By 1888 the railroad
complex neared occupancy and the workers were poised to move in. It has
been said that the new towns along the tracks west of Petersburg of the
old AM&O needed names and the president of the railroad and his wife took
great pleasure in naming them. The wife, an avid reader of English
literature enjoyed using English names. She was successful at naming:
Suffolk, Waverly, Wakefield, and others.
However, on one location he did not agree with his wife’s choice
and was in dispute. So, they
agreed to name it Disputanta
The new town at Robertson switch
also needed a new name and the English surveyor put forth his choice of
Crewe, after a major rail center in England where he had worked. In
January 1888, Robertson switch became Crewe, Virginia. As homes were
built, families moved in. As
families moved in, merchants located here as well. As the town grew,
stores, mail, schools, churches, health services, and banking facilities
became available.
Early on, several large
structures were established. Before the roundhouse and turntable were
completed, a “Y” track existed to turn locomotives around. The roundhouse
and coal wharf were two of the first structures accomplished.
Later, in 1910, came a YMCA. The YMCA became a hotel, restaurant,
recreation center for the railroad men.
Train crews used it as a rest point when they would bring trains
from Roanoke or Norfolk and would stay over night and take another train
back to their original destination the next day or so. The roundhouse and
the coal wharf were torn down at the end of the steam era, 1963.
The new diesel locomotives did not require them. Models of these
two structures are located in a case in the main room of the museum.
Only pictures are left of the YMCA which was also demolished in
1974 because of age. Pictures of the YMCA are on display in the museum.
After the end of the steam era,
the late fifty’s, the population of the town began a slow turn downward.
The number of employees required to service the railroad decreased
due to modernization and new technology.
In
the sixty’s, after a short run with Amtrak, passenger service to and from
Crewe came to an end. This again caused service businesses in the town to
decrease along with additional decreases in population. By 1979 the
Passenger Station was also torn down.
It would appear that the Crewe
population has leveled out. During the housing boom of the early years of
this century, Crewe seems to have become a small suburb of the larger
cities to the east. Life is much quieter in Crewe and new families found
that they could afford to live in a beautiful small town and commute to
work in the larger cities. Additionally, Crewe and the surrounding area
have witnessed the influx of a number of “retirees” from all over the
country. A lot of these folks have lived all over the country and the
world and when they discovered Crewe, decided that the slower pace, lower
prices, and the friendliest people makes Crewe the place where they would
be happy in their retirement years.
Colonel Wirt Cory (U.S.A.F. Ret), was born and
raised in Crewe Virginia. After a meritorious career in the United States
Air Force he retired and returned to the town of his birth. In 1992, he
founded the Crewe Railroad Museum as a memorial to all of the residents of
Crewe and the surrounding area that lived here and were employed by the
Norfolk Western Railroad.
The first phase of the Museum began inside of a
caboose. Colonel Cory acquired the caboose that is currently on the museum
property and began to acquire railroad artifacts to display within it. It
did not take long before the “museum” outgrew the caboose.
The second phase began by removing the artifacts
from the caboose and installing them in a modified box car.
The box car is still in place on the property and is in process of
being refurbished to again house items that can not be displayed in the
new building.
The third phase occurred as monetary donations,
and additional artifacts increased to the point that construction on the
new building could begin. The
museum opened in the new building in 1997. It was built entirely from
donations of money, building materials, and volunteer labor.
Although the museum has many features of the original Crewe
railroad station it is not intended to be a replica of the original
station.
In the entrance room there are displays of “O”
gauge model locomotives
depicting the three largest classes of steam motive power used on the N&W,
the “A” class 2-6-6-2, the “J” class 4-8-4, and the “Y6” class 2-8-8-2.
Additionally there are models of the original 24 stall roundhouse,
turntable, and coaling dock. The three real structures were all razed by
the end of 1963.All models are the work of Mr. Al Gerard, also a native
son of Crewe.
Over the years, the museum has had the good
fortune to secure several federal grants allowing it to expand its
contents. Some of the first acquisitions that came as a result of those
grants were the addition of a GP-7
Diesel Locomotive. Later grants funded the acquisition of a 2-8-0
“Consolidation” Steam Locomotive. The museum has just recently purchased
an N&W passenger coach that was used on the very first Powhatan
Arrow passenger train. It was built in 1941, refurbished in 1946
for the “Arrow” and is similar in design to the new 1949 N&W coaches. A
portion of the coach has been outfitted as a diner to adequately display
some of the museum’s china, flatware, and menu artifacts from diners past.
The museum is also fortunate in that from time to
time individuals from the surrounding areas donate railway artifacts that
may have been in their family for generations.
The museum is located on land that was once a
storage area for passenger cars when the N&W still operated passenger
service. This location is adjacent to the original railway yards that date
back to 1888 when the N&W established Crewe.
The benefit of the museum location is that it also provides a good
location for rail-fans to monitor and photograph the current operations of
the Norfolk Southern train traffic today.