Last Westward Extension of Roanoke Yard... When ?

Sun Jun 2 13:13:58 EDT 2024

From N&W Magazine, August 1960, page 350

North Roanoke Yard to Be Enlarged
Our North Roanoke Yard will be enlarged in two areas to provide the capacity for handling increased traffic through this important terminal, and to substantially speed up train movements. A total of about 10.8 miles of new track will be constructed. 
Between our 12th Street terminal office and Shaffers Crossing four additional eastbound classification tracks (to hold from 48 to 85 cars), one eastbound forwarding track to accommodate a 200-car train, and a new eastbound main track will be constructed on the south side of the yard. Construction of the new eastbound main track will permit use of the present eastbound main as a classification track, making a total of six additional tracks for switching and forwarding. 
The hump track leading to the new portion of the classification yard will be equipped with an automatically-controlled retarder. 
Addition of the new classification and forwarding tracks will give our North Roanoke classification yard a total of 53 tracks for making up and forwarding trains. The improvement will permit simultaneous switching and classifying a coal train and a time freight train. 
West of Shaffers Crossing, eight tracks in the westbound empty yard will be extended a distance of approximately 2,000 feet westward to accommodate 200-car trains, and the eastbound main track will be relocated. In addition, two pull-in tracks serving the eastbound receiving yard will be lengthened to accommodate 150-car trains. 
To make room for the additional tracks in the classification yard it will be necessary to further cut back the hillside on the south side of the yard involving the removal of about 325,000 cubic yards of material. About two thirds of this material will be used to make a fill for the new westbound empty yard tracks. 
Construction of the empty yard tracks will necessitate also changing the channel of Roanoke River in two places for a total distance of 3,800 feet with 85,000 cubic yards of excavation.

From the N&W Magazine, September 1961, page 394

THE Norfolk and Western's enlarged and modernized yard facilities at North Roanoke, recently placed in operation, are yielding faster and greatly improved transpor tation service. 
The yard improvements are in two phases, which are located some distance apart but are complementary. Phase I is a new seven-track classification and forwarding yard between our 12th Street terminal office and Shaffers Crossing for the handling of commercial coal trains and westbound time freight trains, and to permit simultaneous switching of two freight trains over our Shaffers Crossing hump. Phase 2 included the extension of eight tracks accomodate 200-car trains, and the construction of two pull-in tracks serving the eastbound receiving yard to permit 200-car coal trains to be pulled in to the clear, incident to yarding. 
The new classification yard, which is served by the existing Shaffers Crossing hump, is a highly useful and efficient operation. Its outstanding feature is a modern switching and speed control set-up, which makes it possible to move cars in to the classification yard at speeds which not only insure completion of desired couplings, but reduce to a minimum overspeed impacts, with resulting prevention of damage to freight. 

Best
Ken Miller

> On Jun 1, 2024, at 12:01 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Does anyone know the year Roanoke Yard was extended westward for the last time, to the present location of "WB," just east of Mason's Creek ?
> 
> I think this this was done sometime in the 1950s, and it involved a westward extension of approximately a mile and a half.
> 
> Originally, the term "WB" applied at a telegraph office located at the point where the Roanoke Belt Line intersected the east/west main line, in the vicinity of the present steel mill, at a location now known as the Radford Division Pull-In. That location was known as "West Belt Line Junction," and I have seen at least one period source (a Time Table Special Instruction)  intimating that "WB" stood for "West Belt." This was in that period of time (which seemingly began about 1911) when northward Punkin' Vine trains ran to West Roanoke by using the Roanoke Belt Line from "Q" Block and Train Order Office at South Roanoke, to the Receiving Yard at (old, original) WB.
> 
> At the time of this last westward extension, the Eastward and Westward Main Tracks were re-located, eight of the ten Empty Side Yard tracks, plus the Westbound Running Track were extended from old WB to the present west end of the Empty Side Yard (about 4000 ft east of Mason's Creek,) and two new Radford Division Pull-In tracks were also constructed over this territory. Also, a new and very long interlocking was constructed at this time at the new west end of the yard, and this new interlocking was also called "WB." (Yes, they re-cycled the name "WB.")  Is a 2,400 foot long interlocking long enough for you...?
> 
> And my suspicion is that the west end of the Receiving Yard may have been extended westward by several hundreds of feet during this construction work.
> 
> So, does anyone know when this last mile-and-a-half extension was made to the west end of Roanoke Yard ?
> 
> -- abram burnett,
>      from the Autonomous Zone of the Great Turnip Nation
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