[N&W] Re: Ellett

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Raymond Smoot replies:
	
Ellett is at milepost V272.4 on the former Virginia main, about 27 miles
west of Roanoke. Once an agricultural area along the North Fork of the
Roaonke River, it is quickly becoming subdivided with several developments
including the Blacksburg Country Club. Ellett is about 6 miles east of the
continental divide tunnel at Merrimac and  3 miles west of Fagg, the long
double track passing area at the bottom of the grade. The pushers that
connect to eastbound trains at Whitethorne sometimes stay connected to
provide breaking on the down slope and cut off at Fagg, returning back over
the mountain through Ellett and Merrimac to Whitethone. More often the
pushers cut off at Merrimac. However, since the wreck of '96, in bad weather
the pushers stay on to Fagg. As someone who lives in this area, my
impression is that NS runs about 12 trains a day this way, usually all
eastbound. Occasionally, we see some westbound action but that is usually
only when track work or a wreck make it necessary to run this way instead of
westbound through Christiansburg on the old N&W main.