Crosstie Lane in Parrott

[NW Mailing List]

Bruce,
 
Thanks for putting the web page together so others won't have to try to reconstruct all this research bit by bit. Looks good to me, except for where it says "...drops to the river at Belspring...". That's actually in Parrott, a mile or more north of Belspring. As soon as you cross Back Creek you're in Parrott.
 
And a new bit here - the hill at the opposite end of the trestle/bridge from Crosstie Lane was known as "Gibson Hill". I don't know why, 'cuz Duncans lived at top of the hill as far back as the '50's.
 
One thing I'd love to see would be an overlay of the "high-grade" ROW on a current GIS photo. That old Radford map showed the track from Radford going east on Hazel Hollow, then bearing to the north, but making more than a 90 degree turn. Almost as if the ROW would have come all the way back around on top of where Rt. 11 is today. But I don't think it did.
 
As Charlie(?) said, there was always an obvious "shelf" left from the ROW behind some of the businesses on the east side of Rt. 11 there. And the railroad wouldn't have put an extra "crook" in line. Maybe the mapmaker just got "artistic" where he ended the high-grade line?
 
Vince Albert.

> > Message: 1> Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:32:03 -0400> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> Subject: Fw: Crosstie Lane in Parrott> To: "N&W Mailing 2List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> Message-ID: <008a01c8cb30$a942dfa0$6401a8c0 at DellDesktop>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"> > Bruce,> > As I promised in my previous message, I checked the annual reports for the item on the curved New River bridge at Radford leading to Schooler Hill. It is interesting that the item includes the span lengths.> > N&W Annual Report 1888> > "Bridge 600, a new bridge composed of two deck plate girders each 54 feet long, and six spans deck Pratt truss, each 129 feet 5 inches long, with two abutments and seven piers. Was built at Eastern Connection New River Branch."> > For those who have not already seen it, I am attaching a photo from the Va Tech imagebase showing both bridges. The hillside cut across the river was the New River Branch for five years before the curved bridge was built, and formed a large wye along with the two bridge tracks.> > Gordon Hamilton> > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Gordon Hamilton > To: NW Mailing List > Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 1:44 PM> Subject: Re: Crosstie Lane in Parrott> > > Bruce,> > You are performing a valuable service in consolidating into a Web page the info being developed on the old high-grade line between New River and Belspring. I have three N&W Annual Report references that you may want to work into your text.> > 1888 N&W Annual Report> > I do not have this annual report in front of me, but I recall that the curved bridge over the New River leading to Belspring and beyond was numbered 500 or 600 and completed in 1888. Someone else may be able to comment on this. I'll let you know if a later examination of this annual report reveals anything different.> > 1901 N&W Annual Report> > "NEW RIVER CONNECTING BRANCH :> > "This line was opened for traffic October 11, 1900. The Company has accepted an Act of the General Assembly of Virginia, approved February 15,1901, authorizing the abandonment of the old high-grade line between New River Depot and Back Creek, in Pulaski County."> > 1902 N&W Annual Report:> > "Belspring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ; Station building removed from old location on High Grade to new location."> > Gordon Hamilton> > ----- Original Message ----- > From: NW Mailing List > To: NW Mailing List > Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 10:41 AM> Subject: Re: Crosstie Lane in Parrott> > > On Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 5:09 AM, Vince Albert wrote:> > Hello all.> > As told to me by my favorite uncle, Arnold Scott, who worked at Williamson briefly after WW II, there was "a helluva bridge" across the creek bottom at Back Creek which tied "Crosstie Lane" to Belspring Road. Wish I had some photos of it. Uncle Arnold was the son of the man who named the Arrow, so all things N&W were a main interest of his all his life.> > Thanks, Vince, that helps confirm what we have been speculating about. Maybe we can> eventually pull all this together. I threw together a real, real, rough first-pass web page> at http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bharper/nwrwy/oldmainline.html that has a link to the GIS> image at Parrott and one from New River that shows the end of the bridge.> > Bruce in Blacksburg> 

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