The Valley Railroad's Right of Way into Salem

[NW Mailing List]

I concur with Abe regarding creating maps on Google. I have not done this on Google Earth, however this feature is also available in Google Maps in a web browser. 

I presented a basic how-to to my local NMRA Division that uses the Google Maps approach. The first half of this video is relevant to building a map, the second half discusses mapping resources. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn5DpfV5uJU

Abe, do you have any documention on the Google Earch steps?

Matt Goodman 

> On Jul 26, 2025, at 11:51 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
>  Has anyone created a Google Earth file overlaying the Right-of-Way of the Valley Railroad on the modern satellite imagery,  from, say,  Botetourt County, into Salem ?
> 
> My father told me about scouting the old unfinished grade of the Valley RR in the 1930s, so the topic has always interested me.  It is perhaps a twist of irony that he is buried in Cedar Lawn Cemetery on Cove Road, just 700 feet from the Valley RR's R/W.
> 
> Google Earth Pro, which is freeware, is the perfect tool for a person interested in railroad history.  With just a few tutorials from YouTube, a user can be drawing line locations on satellite imagery, taking elevations, measuring distances, getting accurate coordinates, creating map files and adding annotations, creating grade charts, and much, much more.  My youngest grandson could do anything he wanted in Google Earth by the time he was 10 years of age.  I am presently working on a project of mapping the entire VGN on the satellite imagery in Google Earth, and the only thing holding up the project is that I cannot obtain the names of some of the little branch lines in the coal fields.  Try Google Earth... you will love it.
> 
> Now... has anyone done the Valley RR ???
> 
> -- abram burnett
> 1-800-TUR-NIPZ
> .
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