Flickwir Redux

[NW Mailing List]

Perhaps by now you are tired of seeing David Flickwir images.  But I still have a fascinated interest in the man, as I walked past his home on South Jefferson St, Roanoke, many many times as a kid.  Back in those days, about the only sources available were a few traces in the Virginia Room of the Roanoke Library, but those were only scant and passing references, nothing substantive.

Here are two very interesting images made in December 1913, showing Flickwir's steam shovels, narrow gauge 0-4-0's, and even a steam-operated rig for drilling blast holes.  The photos were made when Flickwir was engaged in building portions of the Lackawanna Railroad's Pennsylvania Cut Off, and were released yesterday by Steamtown, from their negative archive.  To me, the greatest part of the photos is those lovely Link-and-Pin couplers... something right out of my era of interest, and which I wish I could have worked with.

http://lists.railfan.net/erielackphoto.cgi?erielack-04-05-17/B1673.jpg

http://lists.railfan.net/erielackphoto.cgi?erielack-04-05-17/B1674.jpg

BTW, I checked the October 1, 1957, List of Sidings and Team Tracks Within Roanoke Terminal Limits, which belonged to my father, and it still shows Flickwir Siding. Its number is Siding No. 1 of 134 listed sidings, and its location is grouped within the group called  East Roanoke Shops, Industries Northeast. In the 1960s, I inquired of the old timers where this siding had been located, and the only answers were vague, something like "East of Furnace Crossing, around the paint yard tracks."

-- 73 SW &
   (abram burnett)
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                  Sent to You from my Telegraph Key
Successor to the MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH LINE of 1844
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