Crosstie Lane in Parrott

[NW Mailing List]

Another piece of information is needed here. The original line through Radford and over Schooler Hill included 11 miles from MP 298 near the mouth of Crab Creek to MP 309 near the mouth of Back Creek. When the new low-grade line was constructed the line was about four miles shorter and the mile posts were numbered 302 to 309 from Norfolk; specifically the MP 309 remained the same and the old MP 298 became new MP 302.

Today when proceeding from Vicker to Walton, the last mile post before Walton is MP 297 and next one is MP 302 which is near Walton. MP 309 is near Parrott. The old reports said the Schooler line ended near the mouth of Back Creek near to MP 309.

Bud Jeffries
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 12:37 PM
  Subject: Re: Crosstie Lane in Parrott


  On 6/5/08, Ron Davis wrote:
    Bruce,

    If it were not for the odd-shaped piece of land along Crosstie Lane, I'd strongly disagree with you. I'm still not totally convinced because there are almost no signs of a grade along that route. The only thing I can figure is that there was an extensive trestle over Back Creek in that area to carry the tracks from the hill where Belspring Rd comes down to the creek and Crosstie Lane.

    About a half-mile to the south of Back Creek, Belspring Rd and the existing rail line come tantalizingly close together as seen on a map. I've scouted this area too, but there is too much vertical distance between the road and the tracks to conclude that the connection was made there either.

      There is an interesting triangle in the property lines there, which
      seems to indicate where the original line came off the river.
  This is an interesting discussion and I'm glad it is continuing (much better than "I didn't get my Arrow yet, where is it?"). Another piece of all this is the helper operations on this line. Were the pushers stationed at Parrott/Belspring (and what facilities were there?) or were they dispatched from Radford as needed? Or did they just shuttle back and forth, pushing empties west, then pushing loads east?  All intriging questions that may be difficult to answer.

  As I said, that triangle could indicate where the original main line went -- it could also be where there was a spur into the mines at Parrott. I just don't know. I, too, wondered how to get over that change in elevation between road and tracks along with several others during occasional forays to that area. The only conclusion we could reach based on the present terrain was that Crosstie Lane is the old roadbed. It may take some digging in the archive or a visit to the Pulaski County courthouse to poke around in old deed books to come up with an answer.  


  Bruce in Blacksburg




------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  ________________________________________
  NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
  To change your subscription go to
  http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
  Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
  http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20080606/50e3462e/attachment.html>