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

[NW Mailing List]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 6:14 AM Abe wrote:

> 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.


> This happened not long after the branch had been stubbed off.


 Abe,

You would have left your train west of Christiansburg station and pulled
east to the crossovers to reach the westbound main. From there you would
have run to the connection to the Blacksburg Branch at 37°08'29.8"N
80°23'18.6"W.

Then your engineer would be shoving you and your coal hoppers to the coal
wharf at 37°09'38.4"N 80°25'39.2"W. The cars would be unloaded into trucks
there and hauled to Blacksburg and the campus power plant.

I don't remember when they decommissioned that site but at one there was a
tracked crane there with a car shaker that could be lowered onto a hopper
to dislodge stuck/frozen coal. The siding beyond the tipples was for the
team track that replaced the ability to receive shipments at the Blacksburg
station. It was also the tail track for hoppers after they were unloaded. I
don't know how the cars were moved around the site.

Bruce in Blacksburg


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