old train pictures

[NW Mailing List]

On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 8:54 PM, David Hall wrote:


>  Here are some old N&W photos. I do not know when the fire was. My

> Brother took the 611 and old diesel in Christiansburg in the 70's

>

> Class J Images:

> http://nwhs.org/wiki/show_image.php?id=213

>


OK, this picture is giving me fits. I wish there was just a little bit more
image visible to the right to be able to better pinpoint this location. I'm
thinking it is somewhere on Christiansburg Mountain, but it appears there
is a trailing-point switch under the fourth car and there aren't any that
exist on the mountain now that match up with the current terrain and
background. I could almost say that is Arthur, but today's Arthur crossover
is going the wrong way, from westbound to eastbound. The hint of the curve
behind the end of the train isn't right either. There aren't many places
where one can get on the south side of the track and get the elevation to
get that shot, either, to be able to see the top of the J. A few things I
can toss in to make things work (and they may be a stretch) is that the
train is heading east (downgrade) running reverse main, which is why is it
up against the bank, and that there has been trackwork done since this trip
(including the center track at Arthur was still in place at the time and/or
the cross-over was reconfigured in the intervening years). Or my geography
is way off and this photo was taken in an entirely different location.
Perhaps others can put where the photographer was standing in a better
location -- I'll be happy to try to reproduce the image with a train
sometime this week, or someone else in the area can give it a shot.

Bruce in Blacksburg
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