Re: 1950’s Pokey Farm question #2

[NW Mailing List]

Mike,

Guilty as charged, adrift somewhere between "contemplated" and "modeled."

Farm's track plan was remarkably simple and efficient, especially when 
one considers how much of the Division's operations hinged on this 
location. To a man, the old heads said the same thing about Farm, what 
my senior operator/dispatcher called, "A zoo."

And that's saying something on the Pokey.

Grant Carpenter

On 12/1/2023 6:27 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> Has anyone on the list modeled, or contemplated modeling, this scene?
> There is a lot of interesting stuff for a mainline scene, with a 
> little bit of switching, too.
> Mike Rector
>
> On Fri, Dec 1, 2023 at 6:23 PM NW Mailing List 
> <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>
>     Mike,
>
>     Great choice of shots to dovetail with Chris Dalton's query. At
>     first glance, the Bill Gordon shot appears to be an eastbound
>     pulling out of the Middle Track onto the WB Main, given another
>     eastbound is holding that main. The Class Y6b and an auxiliary
>     tender would suggest a Weller (Bluefield) or River (Williamson)
>     crew and pusher who have stopped to cut tonnage and service their
>     engines. They would ease up to the crossover at Hemphill such that
>     the rear clears this signal and their pusher can get back on for
>     the trip up to Bluefield – typical for Farm.
>
>     However, a closer look would suggest this is the local mine run,
>     by this time, First AB4 out of Auville. The engineman is looking
>     to the rear as if backing loads into WB Storage. As I recall,
>     Gordon's time frame in this area was late steam when Y6b's and
>     auxiliary tenders were relegated to mine runs.
>
>     This also illustrates why loads are blocked at the tipple to
>     minimize time on the main to set them off.
>
>     In the Archive image, the smaller, square coal chute is on the WB
>     Main and appears to be a vintage Link-Belt chute that was possibly
>     an old spare or salvage. Similar to the chute over the EB Main,
>     the larger, round chute over the Middle Track is visible in the
>     Gordon shot as a shadow under the coal bin, directly over the
>     Middle Track only.
>
>     Pushers might take servicing on the WB Main while running around
>     Farm, if Tug operator had time on the main. The WB main was
>     normally left clear to run traffic around in both directions using
>     the crossovers at Hemphill and Mohegan; however, extreme
>     conditions might have an eastbound taking service on the WB Main.
>     Elkhorn (Bluefield) crews did not take coal and water at Farm.
>
>     Edits and questions are welcome.
>
>     Grant Carpenter
>
>     On 9/3/2023 8:56 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>>     In this William Gordon picture, it seems that the 4 tracks
>>     immediately consolidate back to a double track mainline.
>>
>>     In this Archive image, it appears that there may only be chutes
>>     on the westbound track. Does that make sense considering the
>>     direction flow of the coal trains bound for the Great Lakes? The
>>     westbound tracks have a large funnel type dispenser.  The outer
>>     eastbound track has a possible smaller square chute, and the
>>     inner eastbound does not have a visible chute (although it may
>>     just be fully raised).
>>
>>     Mike Rector
>>
>>     On Sun, Sep 3, 2023 at 8:46 PM NW Mailing List via
>>     NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>>
>>         Greetings to All,
>>
>>         During my lifetime and dispatching career on the Pokey the
>>         track layout at Farm (listed north to south) has always been
>>         Main 2 (wb main), Middle Track, #2 Storage, #1 Storage and
>>         Main 1 (eb main). The current track configuration has only
>>         the Middle Track running directly under the coaling tower.
>>         I’ve noticed in pictures from August Thieme, William Gordon
>>         and a drawing from Louis Newton that in the 1950’s two tracks
>>         ran directly under the coaling tower.  Can any of you guys
>>         elaborate on the 1950’s track configuration and how it was used?
>>
>>         Thank Ya’n Out,
>>         Chris Dalton
>>         Bluefield, WV 
>>
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