Blacksburg, Christiansburg - Several More Photos from 1963

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When did the N&W retire their wooden cabooses?

Carl Barna
Emmaus, PA
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Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2024 9:55 AM
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Subject: Blacksburg, Christiansburg - Several More Photos from 1963

Yesterday saw a few more negative scans done for the Archives. Our Turnip Marketing Department thought others might like to see them as well, so they are attached.

The first image shows the "other" end of the Blacksburg Grand Union Terminal. Next follow two photos of the location of the north abutment of the old Blacksburg Branch bridge over the Radford Division Main. Next is a photo of a wooden Whistle Board on the Blacksburg Branch, complete with a woodpecker hole and bullet holes. (This photo was taken from a moving train, so the composing of the photograph is less than desirable.)  Then follow three photos of the "Christiansburg Shifter" arriving from Radford and thence headed toward the Branch with two loads of coal (these images were made on different days.)  Note, in one of the photos, the Flagman "taking down his markers."  The use of oil markers and Rule 99 flagging were both done away with later that year.

Several of these negatives were grossly overexposed. Back then there was no BTL (behind-the-lens) metering in cameras and, unless you lugged around an exposure meter, guesswork went into exposing each shot, and sometimes you guessed wrongly. Photoshop was able to make a somewhat reasonable rescue of two of the over-exposed negatives.  All these exposures were made with a Leica M-2 and that wonderful old Pan Atomic-X film, ASA 32.

And last is a photo of the VPI Power House steam whistle blowing at 7 PM on a Summer evening in 1963. I had made a motor trip to Blacksburg with a friend; we inquired about the hours at whistle was sounded, and stayed around for a photograph. Not railroad, but the N&W hauled the coal which made the steam which you see in this photograph !  My friend went on to graduate as a Chemical Engineer from VPI... and I went on to master the fine and gentlemanly art of shoving boxcars around in the darkness !

There remain about 40 rolls of old 35mm film which I exposed, developed, stuck in steel film cans and never printed. I have no idea what is on those oldrolls of film.  Do you think I will ever get them all scanned... ?

-- abram burnett
Managing Director, Coalition for Turnip Rights
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