[N&W] Re: Norton

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Harry Bundy's description of the L&N/N&W negotiations from the early '70s
for trackage rights from Norton to St. Paul are dead-on correct (the new
connection at St. Paul opened for traffic around May 1973).  One other
sticking point was the lack of passing track space between those points.
The only TC-controlled siding was at Tacoma, Va.  But....the N&W used it
more for short-term mty or load storage than passing trains.  If L&N started
adding two or three trains each way per day (and this eventually increased
to 10 or more per day before traffic was rerouted via Big Stone Gap in
February 1986), this track would have to remain clear for meets.  So, L&N
had to pony up the bucks to contruct a couple of storage tracks, one on each
side of the main, down "Bruce's Straight" between the east end of Tacoma and
Coeburn.  Those tracks, still in service today, replaced Tacoma as a
short-term storage/staging "yard," and the TC-siding thus became a busy
place for N&W/L&N meets.  Today, however, NS has reverted to the old ways.
With the availability of the former Interstate Miller Yard line, which was
kept intact to a point near the east end of Tacoma, and swung over to make a
new connection in 1985, NS has double track from Norton to that point.  And
so the siding at Tacoma is now used for storage/staging again.
Ron Flanary