Operations along the Valley Line between Stuarts Draft and Hagerstown fro...

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Wed Mar 27 21:56:36 EDT 2013


Harry and others,

The coal interchanged at Glasgow, VA would be hauled to Roanoke and I don't
know where it went from there. The train was called the "Glasgow Turn".
If I remember correctly the locomotives would run light to Glasgow and pick
up their train. When they got to Lithia, Virginia they would split the
train and take the first half to Troutville and then the locomotives would run
light back to Lithia. They would pick up the second half of the train, run
back to Troutville and leave the rear cars on the main. The locomotives
would then run past the front cut of cars on the siding, couple up a then the
fun began. To reassemble their train they had to shove the first half of
the train upgrade to the second half. The locomotives sounded great as they
shoved against the loaded cars. This was a great train for chasing. You had
two chances to photograph it between Lithia and Troutville.

One night I was listing on the scanner. The brakeman was waiting at the
rear cut of cars when the engineer spotted a baby bear along the tracks. He
commented that his momma might be nearby and the brakeman answered that he
was already on top of the car! LOL

The crews were usually a great bunch of guys and as a young railfan I
frequently got the opportunity to visit the cab, including a short ride at
Troutville one night.

Thanks for the memories.

Richard D. Shell
Troutville, VA


In a message dated 3/27/2013 12:27:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:















Aside from I think it's four manifests HR-95, RH-88, RH-52 and HR-55(?)
what other traffic was running. Was coal still running to Conrail or Chessie?
What if any locals were there?


In the period around 1981, N&W was receiving unit coal trains at Glasgow
from Chessie. This coal
originated from a mine near Man, WV and was billed to CP&L at Hyco and
Mayo.
They're gone now because NS built a conveyor belt a little over 5 mi. long
from the mine to the
former VGN at Kopperston. By recollection, the Kopperston route saved
about 300 one-way miles.

When the unit trains were still in existence, the Superintendent, Hank
Kinzell, came up with
a time-saving idea -- build a connection in Roanoke that would run from
the overhead bridge at
Orange Avenue past the East End Shops to the N&W main line to Norfolk
near Furnace Crossing.
This would have saved the train from going in to Shaffers Crossing and
having to swap power from
the west end to the east end. It never came about, but you may want to
incorporate that into your
layout. Harry
Bundy







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