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Was (is) there separate EB & WB mains through Bluefield? If so, are they side-by-side in the photo?



Jeff:
According to the TC machine I rescued from the Signal Shop,
the EB & WB mains were separate.  There was another
thruway for westbounds at Bluefield that probably doesn't
show in the photo -- the Radford Division pull-in.  It ran to
the north side of the East Yard and on to the Mercer Street
overhead bridge and west. It was used by westbounds 
needing no switching.  Beyond the interlocking near "RD",
it was not signaled.  At the East Yard office one night, I
saw a hopper train westbound on the pull-in.  Engines from
a run off the Clinch Valley, cut off from its train and headed
for the shops with the power, entering the pull-in in front
of the hopper train.  The hopper train went into emergency,
the conductor who was standing to detrain at the yard got
thrown against the caboose's door knob and the only way
to get him to the emergency room was to have him transferred
from the caboose to a motor car that relayed him to an
ambulance at the East Yard office.          Harry Bundy







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