Roundhouses in Roanoke - A Photo

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Abram, Thanks for sharing this scene. It would seem that the south portion of the roundhouse has already been removed even as early as 1960 from this photo. I believe there would be a roof line visible over, and in front of, the Alcos if it was still standing. Do you have any memory/timeline of it being demolished?        John Garner

 

From: NW Mailing List [mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org] 
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2019 12:11 PM
To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: RE: Roundhouses in Roanoke - A Photo

 

What with recent discussion of Round Houses at Roanoke, I offer the attached photo taken through the doors at the Shaffers Crossing Round House in 1960.

 

This is a scan of an 8x10" print made on that old G-surface paper.  The negative was a 4x5" negative, most likely on that awful old Royal Pan film.  The camera was a Bush Pressman-D, hand-held.  Unfortunately my scanner will not handle a 4x5" negative, so I had to work from the print.  I still have the negative, should the Hon. Mr. Miller, Grand Prince of N&W images, wish to scan it.

 

The vehicular entrance to Shaffers Crossing was off 24th Street.  Passing through the concrete arch tunnel under the Westbound Main Line, one turned either right or left.  A right turn took one up a ramp leading toward the Crew Office, "Long Houses," coal wharf and the Radford Division Cab Track.  A left turn coming out of the tunnel took one up a ramp, past the north side of the Round House, to an area we called the "coke rack," and to the Shaffers Crossing Hump.  This photograph was taken at the top of the second-mentioned ramp. Estimated coordinates for the location of the camera would be about 37.2808, -79.9561, and the camera would have been pointed south-southwestwardly.

 

Really, the scene presented by the photograph is quite prosaic.  Fluorescent lights ( <mailto:ugh@!> ugh!) hanging from the joists and a pile of nondescript junk in the middle of the floor certainly rob the photograph of any historical charm or significance. But it is all I have to offer.  Had I been just two years earlier, this photo would have shown the crown jewels instead of stinky Dismals.

 

The "Keep Closed" signs on the doors notwithstanding, those doors were always open, save in the cold Wintertime.  The open doors proved too enticing, so one day I went there with the press camera, and took the picture.  And now you see it, 59 years later !

 

             -- abram burnett,

Precision Scheduled Turnips, LLC

 

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