Vesuvius Re-visited.

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Bill,

If you want to see that same gas pump again, it's now located in the O. 
Winston Link Museum in Roanoke.

Jeff Sanders

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 9:12 PM
Subject: Vesuvius Re-visited.



> Sad to say, I have temporarily misplaced the photos, but around 1990 while

> driving up Interstate 81  in Virginia I decided to re-trace some of the 

> foot

> steps of O. Winston Link.  In his book "Steam Steel And Stars" you will 

> rcall

> the interior view f the general store in Vesuvius, Va., and the old 

> gentleman

> outside putting gas in a convertible automobile as a northbound passenger

> train passes in the background on the doubletrack  N&W  in front of  the

> store.  I turned off I-81 to go over to Vesuvius and on the state road 

> near

> Vesuvius on the right, I spotted an  ACY covered hopper, minus trucks

> mounted about 15 or 18 feet high on two concrete piers with room for

> Virginia Dept. Of Highways dump trucks to drive underneath to receive

> gravel to spread on roads during icy weather.  The top of the coverd 

> hopper

> is  located up against a steep fill where other trucks can dump gravel 

> into

> the hopper to be dumped into the smaller dump trucks.  Obviously I took a

> photo of that.  To my surprise, although long closed, that general store

> building was still intact!   That gravity gasoline pump in the Winston 

> Link

> photo was still right there in the front of the building.  I stood in the

> exact same spot that Link must have been standing when that photo was made

> and got a daytime shot of that gas tank.  If only I could have had a

> N&W  Mountain class  "J look-alike"   passsing in the background with a

> northbound passenger train headed for Stuart's Draft and Waynesboro to

> complete the scene.  You see,  I do have a warm spot for the N&W.  Too

> bad some of you don't feel the same way about the ACL instead of making

> fun of it.  If I do say so, A couple of ACL  P-5-a or P-5-b Pacifics

> doubleheading a passenger  or freight train was a sight to gladden the 

> heart.

> In my case something to be a part of in  that I would be the fireman on

> either the lead or second locomotive.   If you really want a dirty job, 

> try

> firing the second locomotive on a doubleheaded passenger train. You get

> to eat the smoke and cinders of both locomotives up to around 70 MPH.

> You don't need your  coal  pusher then, as the vibration at high speeds

> will shake down the coal pile until coal is ankle-deep n the deck of the

> locomotive. Been there, done that.  Bill Sellers.

>

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