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

[NW Mailing List]

One note.  The Huckleberry obviously ran between Blacksburg and
Christiansburg where mainline trains were taken to Roanoke connecting to
trains to and from Harrisonburg.

Ed Painter

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 1:23 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> When my Dad returned from the war in the Pacific he went back to VPI to
> obtain a MS in Fuels and Power Engineering.  Prior to being commissioned a
> Second Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers he had graduated from VPI
> with BS in Mechanical Engineering, Class of 1943.
>
> While working on his MS he and 2 other men (also working on the same
> Masters degree after returning from the War) ran the VPI power plant.  A
> great opportunity to get real hands on experience maintaining and operating
> an in- service power plant.  The 3 of them also completed a study on fuel
> bed loading for the plant saving VPI the cost of hiring a consultant to
> perform the study.
>
> Following obtaining his MS he went to work for for Appalachian Power at
> the Glen Lyn plant so up until my Sophomore year in HS we lived in Giles
> County.  We went to football games regularly in Blacksburg and on several
> occasions we went into the power plant.  It was very interesting with Dad
> always being an excellent tour guide.
>
> Dad also had lots of stories about riding on the Huckleberry to and from
> his home in Harrisonburg and VPI.  He would also talk about going with the
> Corp of Cadets to football games in Roanoke and other locations by train.
>
> I’m very fortunate to have had a wonderful Dad(an N&WHS member) and
> lifetime railfan and model railroader.  His stories and our times together
> were fantastic.
>
> Ed Painter member #70
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 11:16 AM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> wrote:
>
>> The VT steam power plant is at 37.232369433728834, -80.42063221650687
>> according to google. Its my understanding the power plant is now gas
>> powered. The google image shows lots of coal in the coal yard but it's
>> mostly empty now (last time I checked). I have seen the turbine in the
>> past. They used to do maintenance on the turbine in the summer months.
>>
>> - Roger Link
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 6:14 AM NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <
>> nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> 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.  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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