Campbell Avenue East Leg of Wye at Roanoke: When Built ?

[NW Mailing List]

Toney

Yes, both turntables still exist. The west turntable, near the passenger station, was still functional in recent years, and the other is at what was the passenger car roundhouse (still standing). Freight Car America closed a few years ago; it is now Genisis Rail, with an independent shop in the old machine shop doing power assembly rebuilds. I have no idea if both tables are still serviceable, but I would imagine so.

NS still owns the shops, but they are under lease.

On the question of V&T alignment, I have seen a drawing that, if I recall correctly, had the V&T alignment going a bit to the north of the Roanoke Shops area, and along the alignment of the Shenandoah Valley to the passenger station. Remember that the Shops area was a salt marsh, where the name “Big Lick” came from.

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=230176

That differs from the map I saw, but it depicts the V&T/AM&O RR's original and present alignment (1886) of the N&W RR.

Best
Ken Miller

> On Jul 17, 2024, at 11:00 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> No answers, but more questions.
> 
> If memory serves, there were two turntables at the Roanoke Shops.  One between the Passenger station and the shops (your fenced off turntable), and another between the two large shop buildings.  The one between the buildings had a roundhouse.  Is the turntable between the buildings still in existence and functional?  Is it now in private hands (Freightcar America)?
> 
> The current main line “detours” around the Roanoke Shops.  Did the V&T mainline originally  go “straight” through the area where the shops are located?  Was the mainline moved when the shops were built?
> 
> Toney Minter
> 
>> On Jul 17, 2024, at 8:51 AM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>> 
>> I was talking this morning with Mr. Tommy Duncan about the old Roanoke & Southern RR depot which stood between the east and the west legs of the Campbell Avenue Wye until the 1960s. And I suddenly realized that I do not know the date the East Leg was built. For those not familiar with the turf, here are the coordinates: 37.27162, -79.93657 , which you can copy and paste into the search box of Google Maps.
>> 
>> So, when was the East Leg of the Wye constructed ? (One would think that the West Leg of the Wye was the original connection with the N&W, but probably only Mr. Ken Miller knows for sure...)
>> 
>> That Wye is important. There are only two places where a car or engine can be turned at Roanoke: The Campbell Avenue Wye and the Round House Turntable at Shaffers Crossing. (If the small turntable inside the Roanoke Shop fence were still serviceable, that would be a third place.)
>> 
>> 99 degrees in the Hood yes'tiddy. Even the Amish horses took yesterday off as a "personal day." This weather takes me back to the days of working the Punkin' Vine Local and the Bassett Switchers in hot weather. Those were killer days and killer jobs and air conditioning was rare. I can remember standing on the little front porch of the brick bunkhouse at Payne and ringing the sweat out of my Lee bib overalls at the end of thje day, hanging them up out-of-doors, and hoping they would have dried out by the next day's work. A pair of Lee bib overalls cost $5. A pair of good, short-cuff leather gloves cost $1.50 or $1.75. And a Brakeman made $17.56 for a 100 mile day in Through Freight Sevice, or $17.76 per day in Local Freight Service.
>> 
>> Back then, those Local crews very often worked 15 hours and 59 minutes per day. We could legally work 16 hours per day, but no more. However, if you hit the 16 hour mark, a 10 hour rest period was required. But if we "made off" (i.e. the paper record) at 15 hours and 59 minutes, we could come back to work after only 8 hours rest. No one EVER showed a full 16 hours on duty. Before a Brakeman left the property, we always made sure we knew what time the Conductor "made off," and the Fireman likewise made sure he knew whatn time the Engineman "made off," right to the minute.
>> 
>> Now, will some Old Wise Man please enlighten me about the history of the Campbell Avenue Wye ... ?
>> 
>>  -- abram burnett,
>> 
>> Now Marketing:
>>  Flux-Gate Proton-Gradiometers for Measuring Turnip Entropy
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