Five Retarder Yards on the N&W - One at Bluefield ?

[NW Mailing List]

 True, Abe.  Before the "Permit System) went into effect in the 1970's, Norfolk Terminal (Including Portlock and Sewells Point) had the ability to store about !0,000 cars of coal.  Mines could ship coal to Norfolk that had never been sold and they received no bill for demurrage for the first ten days.  When sold, yard crews would dig out the called-for classes of coal and move them to the coal pier. Several times a day, a Lambert Point-Sewells Point Turn would go to the ex-VGN yard and dig out the needed coal, returning with usually 180 cars.  The City of Norfolk prohibited N&W from operating lengthy coal drags 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM (plus or minus) to prevent grade crossing back-ups.  There was one incident where Norfolk fire crews were called to Virginia Beach to assist in quelling a huge fire.  One fire truck arrived at the Princess Anne crossing (?) just as the coal transfer approached.  Virginia Beach filed for damages, but the courts declined because the N&W transfer moving at about 20 MPH never stopped.  Jimmy Lisle -- do you recall if there were derails at the east end of east yard ?  I seem to recall an incident where a load rolling down hill had no hand brakes and derailed.  The brakeman bailed off after he discovered he discovered he couldn't stop the load.
    On Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 12:50:31 PM EST, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:  
 
 A friend who was a Signal Engineer for Union Switch & Signal sent the attached PDF detailing Car Retarder Yards constructed by American Railroads. I forward it to this List because it gives dates for the Retarder Yards at Portsmouth (2,) Roanoke, Lamberts Point and Bluefield.

The mention of a Retarder Yard at Bluefield gives me indigestion. It is shown as having been installed in 1953, having 13 short tracks (22 to 47 car capacities,) a single lead over the hump without scale rails, and as being "Rider Operation Below Hump."

I do not recall having seen such a Retarder Yard at Bluefield. Of course, I was a Brakeman (1964-hire) on the "Black Leg Division" (i.e. the Radford Division) and so never worked west of the top of the grade Mercer Street in Bluefield. And I never saw any trace of such an animal on the east half of Bluefield Yard.

Can anyone comment on this subject? Why would Bluefield need a Retarder Yard or a hump? The place was generally too busy and congested to do much classification of coal and therefore usually sent out coal indiscriminately, to be sorted and blocked at places further to the east and the west. And Bluefield certainly had very minimal other-than-coal freight to classify. And empty hoppers were not switched out for mines according to capacity. So why the need for a Retarder Yard at Bluefield, and where was it located ?


-- abram burnett
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