Blacksburg Grand Union Terminal Station and End-of-Track - Coordinates ???

[NW Mailing List]

Carl

I think you misread what Abe said. He said “shoving”, as in shoving the cars, not shoveling.

The cars were placed on an elevated trestle, and dumped, through chutes to the ground or into trucks below. I do not know how the coal was specifically handled here. At coal dealerships, it was normally dumped on the ground, then loaded into coal trucks with a mechanical loader. Since this was a specific service, it may well have been dumped directly into waiting trucks.

Best
Ken Miller

> On Dec 30, 2024, at 10:15 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Did you have to shovel coal out of hoppers?  How did you clear the top when you got to the bottom of the hopper?
> 
> Carl Barna
> Emmaus, PA
> From: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on behalf of NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2024 11:17 PM
> To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Cc: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Subject: Re: Blacksburg Grand Union Terminal Station and End-of-Track - Coordinates ???
>  
> Mr. Harper --
> 
> Can you give me coordinates for the VPI Power House ?
> 
> I almost froze to death one night shoving six (?) loads of coal out there from Christiansburg. I was on Time Freight No. 94 and when reporting at East Bluefield, they handed us a message saying our train would have hot loads on the head end for VPI Power House, which was just about out of coal. We were to cut off and tie our train down on the Eastward Main Track at Pelton, and shove the loads out the Blacksburg Branch to the power house.  Memory tells me that Eddie Hoag, of Bland, was the Conductor that night.  The temperature was about ten degrees and there was a wind. I was given the job of riding on top of the first load as we shoved through the darkness. No radios back then, so everything was by hand signals.  I almost froze and it took a good two days hours before I felt warm again. Maturity of vision tells me that I should have stopped the move and retreated to the engine to get warm... perhaps several times. Some things are not safe, and some work plans are just plain needless
>  ly stupid. But when you are young and new, you do what you are told without question.
> 
> This happened not long after the branch had been stubbed off. 
> 
> If you can help with coordinates, I would be obliged.
> 
> I had a similar experience one night riding a flat car ahead of the engine and shoving all the way from Forest to just west of Lynchburg, down the Lynchburg Old Line.  Another ignorant move which could have been done quite safely the next day by the Local Freight.  But that is a story for another day ...
> 
> -- abram burnett
> Still a Frozen Turnip !
> .
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