[N&W] Re: Va Tech Photo #20

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

  I don't know the area well enough to say yeah or nay, but these three
pictures don't seem to be the same place to me.

The Post card, presumably the oldest view has telegraph poles, as
does the recent color shot. No Telegraph in the archive photo.

Also, looking through the bore, the tell-tale base is different.
And only the archive photo has guard rail rerailer in the bore.

Tom Cosgrove
____________________________________________________
Jim,

I do not think these are the same tunnel, though they are similar.

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/norfolksouthern/F1/NS4008.JPG
http://www.nwhs.org/qna/photos/stennet04.JPG

Two items catch my attention.

(1) To the upper left of the tunnel there is actually MORE rock in the more 
recent photo than the later photo. Rock does not grow THAT fast.

(2) The ridge curving around to the left behind the Wasp Rock Tunnel is 
absent in the N&W photo.

Comments, disagreements?

Ron Davis


N&W Mailing List wrote:

 > Looks like the old [C&O] Wasp Rock Tunnel on the James River. Thanks to
 > postcard sent
 > by Mr Pollard of Franklin County, VA.
 >
 > http://www.nwhs.org/qna/photos/wasprocktunnel.jpg
 >
 > Also attached Gill Pollards e-mail with a recent shot. He indicates a
 > lot of the rock has fallen off where you can walk around today. I am
 > sure this is true to some extent but feel it may also be from enlarging
 > the bore through the years.
 >
 > Jim Blackstock
 >
 > From: Gill Pollard
 > Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2002 15:59:16 -0400
 > Subject: Re: Va Tech Photo #20
 >
 > http://www.nwhs.org/qna/photos/stennet04.JPG
 >
 > Wasp Rock is on C&O / CSX.
 > As you can see from the attached photo there is more fill beside the track
 > and a fence
 > against the cliff. You can walk around the tunnel now since more debris has
 > fallen off and
 > piled up over the years.
 >
 > gill
 > _____________________________________________________________________
 > Dangling bits of rope? Or cable/wire?
 > I don't know about railroads, but you see telltales all of the time on
 > highways - especially around tunnels, like in Hampton Roads, or old truss
 > bridges (the ones in West Point, Virginia come immediately to mind).
 >
 > David McGrann
 >
 > N&W Mailing List wrote:
 >
 >  > 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