The talk of pushers and cabooses reminded me of an incident involving the N&W Jawn Henry, the experimental Steam turbine. It was used mainly for pusher service east of Roanoke on the Blue Ridge grade. My dad, who was a N&W MOW employee at the time, and I were heading home from Roanoke. He saw a westbound freight stopped east of the Blue Ridge grade. As I remember, he knew something had happened so we stopped and walked across a bridge over the tracks. I clearly remember looking over the bridge to see the rear of the train with splintered pieces of red and cream colored wood scattered along both embankments. My dad explained to me that the train was starting to be pushed before the lead locomotive started and the end result being the pusher engine collapsing the wooden caboose. We found out later that the conductor and brakeman in the caboose escaped before it basically exploded. We later saw that the Jawn Henry was the pusher engine involved. I was around 5 years old at the time but I still remember that scene today.
