star yard

Tue Aug 4 09:37:30 EDT 2015

We lived at 1533 Chillicothe Street, Portsmouth, OH, in the late forties / early fifties. The old home site is now a parking lot for a Dairy Queen.

The old N&W rail yards were across an alley behind the house. Beyond the tracks were the dirt flood levees and some of the new concrete floodwalls that were then being built.
We used to play on the concrete forms for some of those flood walls. The excavation had wood shoring and massive beams we ran around on. Whew, what crazy days.

N&W stored old passenger cars on some of those yard tracks and we used to play and explore them. My Dad was a railway mail clerk on the Bluefield to Cincinnati run.
He would have worn us out if he had known we were getting on the construction site or the rail cars.

The Scioto river seemed to almost like being next to the ocean at that age.

It's a wonder you survived as a kid with all of those temptations to explore. We later moved to Bluefield.

Howard Leedy
Bluefield, WV

From: NW-Mailing-List [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2015 12:14 AM
To: 'NW Mailing List'
Subject: RE: star yard

The Portsmouth Floodwall was completed in September 1950 after nearly 10 years of construction. Costing $10.1 million ( a huge sum in those days), it is comprised of 4 miles of concrete wall and nearly 4 miles of earthen levee. It is built to protect Portsmouth from the Ohio River at a flood stage of 77 feet. The original floodwall (which never reached Star Yard) was begun in 1914 and protected the City from floods up to 62 feet, which worked perfectly until 1937.

Jim Detty
Lucasville, Ohio

From: NW-Mailing-List [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2015 1:41 PM
To: 'NW Mailing List'
Subject: RE: star yard

Jim,

This doesn't answer your question, but we will probably publish an Arrow article next year on the Portsmouth floods of 1913 and 1937. So far all I have is some preliminary notes. The 1937 flood resulted in an official flood policy for Portsmouth and probably other locations.

When Portsmouth Yard was built the intention was to build it above a previous high water mark which happened to be 66.3 feet in on Feb 12, 1884. The high water mark for the 1913 flood was 67 feet 11 inches on March 31,1913. The high water mark for 1937 was 74.23 feet on January 27, 1937.

Flood walls were built at various time in Portsmouth and the  N&W made various expenditures throughout the years on flood protection in Portsmouth.

Newspaper articles of the time period carried article on the effects of the floods, but little on the construction of flood walls.

Alex Schust

-----Original Message-----
From: NW-Mailing-List [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2015 9:46 AM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: Re: star yard

The walls are flood walls.  When the water gets high enough, they block the entrance with heavy wood planks, heavy wood or steel beams at an angle to reinforce them  and sandbags. I don't know for sure when they put them up in Portsmouth, but I don't remember them not being there.

They have been in Kenova and Huntington all of my life, over 65 years.  I recall my mother saying they they were built about 75 years ago after the devastation of the 1937 flood.

Any time the water rises high enough, they will make preparations to use them.  Since they have different heights above river level depending on where they are located, they will be high some places and lower at others.  Same with the gates,  which would make it more difficult to get information on a specific gate.  I don't know where you would get information on when they have been used, local papers or perhaps the Army Corps of Engineers.

Bob Huston

---- NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.orgote:

> I was in Portsmouth yesterday and drove along the massive wall on the

> North side of the yard.  I assume this was for prevention of damage to

> the yard during flooding?  After a long while the wall changed over to

> the South side and there were grooves in the ends on both sides that

> appeared to be to accommodate a gate of some kind across the tracks.

> Several other openings of this type were present in the South-side

> wall and from Google maps it looks like the wall itself ends at the

> wye.  Does anyone have information on when the wall(s) were

> constructed, how the "gates" were put in place, how often they have

> been used etc.?  I also noticed several small brick buildings, one was

> lettered "station 12".  These has electrical apparatus outside, so I

> would guess they had to do with power distribution, but does anyone have more information on their purpose/use?

> Thanks,

> Jim Cochran

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