Rorer Iron/Narrow Gauge RR Crossing at Roanoke Alms House

[NW Mailing List]

Stephen

You are right on the money.  That would mean the ore would move from the 
washer in Wasena back over the NG to the transfer site south of Alms 
House. From that point it would be loaded on N&W for movement to 
destination.

I am not sure when the Belt Line was built.  It did show up in the 1897 
Annual Report.  The R&S was completed to Roanoke in 1892.  I think we 
would have to assume the Junction with the R&S was established before 
the Belt Line was built.

 From a cost stand point it would have been desirable to use the Belt 
Line.  They could have loaded ore at Wasena on a N&W siding and 
eliminated the transfer point and cost associated with movement to the 
Rorer Siding on the R&S.  Any indication they ever connected with the 
Belt Line?  I have not found anything to indicate the Belt Line was ever 
used.

Jim

On 1/27/2019 5:37 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>
> Jim,
>
> Thanks for the push. I believe you are right, the (eventual) junction, 
> which was actually a siding, is referenced there in the fine print of 
> the W-S blueprint I posted (as Gordon pointed out to me yesterday at 
> GOB-E). My best guess at the moment is that the W-S line crossed the 
> NG in 1891, having secured a deed to do so, with every expectation 
> that Rorer Iron would be loaded at that siding within a few years.
>
> Recall the blue-tinted photos of the Rorer Iron Company's washers, 
> which we have in the archives. As you and I have discussed, these 
> images refer to the later location located just below the Alms House, 
> not the Wasena Park site.
>
> We start to see the N&W annual reports mention the Rorer Mine 
> junction, and I'm thinking we saw that around 1895 in the ARs. I'll 
> post more about this, after I sort through some of the maps I was able 
> to scan at GOB-E yesterday.
>
> Stephen Warren, Roanoke
>
> On Sun, Jan 27, 2019 at 12:51 PM NW Mailing List 
> <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> wrote:
>
>     St
>
>     Great find.  It makes me wonder what else is in that book.  It was
>     my opinion that the crossing of the NG and W-S line would have
>     been the junction.  With the other information looks like the
>     junction may have been just south of the Alms House.  We may be
>     talking about two different locations.
>
>     Has your research found the date the NG bridge in Wasena was
>     converted to a foot bridge?  It appears from the recent photo the
>     NG bridge did not have the guard rails. The photos that show the
>     bridge with guard rails could indicate they were established to
>     protect people using it as a walkway.
>
>     Keep up your research great research. Always  more questions than
>     answers.
>
>     Jim Blackstock
>
>
>
>     On 1/26/2019 5:27 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>>     At the GOB-E Archives work session today, I found an artifact in
>>     the back room which needs restoration due to its rough condition.
>>     It is an oversized book of folded section maps for the N&W's
>>     Winston Salem Division, based upon the Roanoke & Southern Rwy
>>     which opened for service in 1891. The date of this map is
>>     uncertain, but it shows the crossing of the Rorer Iron Company's
>>     narrow gauge railroad at exactly the spot I've been trying to
>>     confirm. Gordon Hamilton was present to keep my bearings
>>     straight, literally, because I could not make out the direction
>>     of travel at first.
>>
>>     In the photograph attached here, it crosses the N&W just past the
>>     Alms House, and heads toward modern-day Colonial Avenue. The Alms
>>     House (Poor House) building is still existing, and serves as a
>>     student resource center on the campus of Virginia Western
>>     Community College. It is called the Thomas House. I looked this
>>     up and took a screen shot to show how this section looks today.
>>
>>     PS - rumor has it the Alms House was haunted for several decades
>>     until a ghost whisperer made contact with the spirits back in the
>>     early 2000's and talked them into leaving. True urban legend...
>>
>>     Stephen Warren, Roanoke
>>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20190128/3700ff2e/attachment.html>