[N&W] Va Tech Photo #20

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Thanks to all who provided input on the last photo.

                        TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS PICTURE #20

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/norfolksouthern/F1/NS4008.JPG

VT information:  track scene on Galax line

  I find this picture very interesting and this tunnel would be great to 
model.  It looks like the railroad was following a nice level shelf along 
the river, when BAM, a big nasty ole hill jumped right out in front of it 
all the way up to the water s edge.  It wasn t a thick hill as the bore 
doesn t look very deep, and I would estimate only fifteen to twenty feet of 
rock wall left for the river-side of the tunnel.  What a pain-in-the-butt 
from a RR construction point of view, but what a picturesque scene from a 
rail fan view.

  ***Prominent in the foreground is a device that I have a couple questions 
about.  I believe it to be a height/clearance gauge, but I can t figure out 
exactly how it is supposed to have worked.***

  Well, I was able to answer my own question when my May Model Railroader 
showed up with an article on telltales.  It seems these devices were to 
warn brakemen to hit the deck or risk being knocked off the train by a 
bridge, or as in this case, a tunnel portal.  This may help us narrow down 
the possible range of dates for this picture.  The rope fringes seem to be 
in fine shape in the photo.  I don t know exactly, but wouldn t think it 
would take too many years of weathering to rot a dangling bit of rope, so I 
would assume the device is still being maintained at the time it got its 
beauty struck.  That would imply that brakemen were still walking the tops 
of cars at that point.  The first box cars I can find without full-length 
ladders and roof walks were delivered in 1966, but I suspect that the 
practice of having brakemen walk the roofs would have been discontinued 
before then.  Does anyone know exactly when this practice ended?  That 
would put a no-later-than date on our shot.

Can somebody familiar with this area pinpoint the location for us?

Thanks,

Jim Cochran