Building at 310 Shenandoah Ave SW

[NW Mailing List]

On Sat, Feb 24, 2024 at 7:25 AM abram wrote:

> Mr. Trettel Ye Asketh:
>
> " What was the 2 story brick structure at the subject address often seen
> on
> the VMT Virtual Railfan camera? It certainly appears that it was a
> railroad
> facility of some sort and is adjacent to a NS maintenance building. In the
> N&W days was it a yard office or something else? "
>
> Good question !
>
> That building was part of a "Huff Mill" complex, which extended westward
> from this point, lying between the Westbound Main Line and Shenandoah Ave.
> Huff Mill (so named because of an earlier property the railroad acquired
> around 1900 from a man name Huff) was the location of the first Signal
> Department Buildings, and the Signal Department continued to occupy them
> until the department was relocated to East End Shops sometime around, or
> shortly before, 1960.  The Huff Mill buildings always struck me as an
> assemblage of ill-matched structures, cobbled together from re-purposed old
> buildings and some newer construction, almost garish in their lack of
> uniformity.  I was only in those buildings once or twice, but on those
> occasions I remember seeing work being done on signal relays, switch
> movements and Position Light Signal arms (which some would call "heads.")
> O have also heard that at one time this shop worked on the gasoline powered
> Motor Cars used by the Signal Maintainers.
>

To add to abram's great answer, some more info:

This derailment photo was posted in the Fans of the Norfolk & Western and
Virginian Railway group on Facebook on February 9 with the caption

Derailment! Here’s a photograph showing a Norfolk & Western A Class
locomotive passing some derailed boxcars in Roanoke, Virginia circa late
1950’s. Photographer unknown.


The photo from the Archives was added to the thread. Both show interesting
details about the Signal Shop on Shenandoah. The Google Map view shows the
current layout. The large rectangular buiiding in the middle was the
Amshack passenger station from the days of the Mountaineer and the
Hilltopper before Amtrak service was ended in the early 1980s. Google
street view shows some good looks at the buildings. The one in question
looks like it had a full-width porch roof on the southern end. Building 36
is interesting with the wind sock at the top -- a good indicator (if it
works) of which way the wind is blowing if there is a tank car derailment
or spill with hazardous gas or chemicals.

Bruce in Blacksburg
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