Another Connundrum for Detective Miller

[NW Mailing List]

At 3:00 AM +0000 11/15/06, "Dr. Watson" wrote:

>Okay, Mr. "Sherlock" Miller, here's a true test of your mettle.

> 

>About thirty years ago, Bill Harmon told me this photo was taken near Plumb Creek.

> 

>What's the story of the photo, the type of engine, the date and the situation?  And why go to Plumb Creek, of all places, to take a photo?


I'd suggest "Plum" Creek as opposed to "Plumb" Creek, but that still doesn't help the matter.  Plum Creek is a "community" on U.S. 11 between Christiansburg and Radford, through which flows the stream of the same name.  The road and the creek wind through some hills before popping out of the bluffs at the east end of Radford, right where the Bristol line is in a hard curve alongside the New River.  Plum Creek goes under the N&W via a nice stone arch bridge before emptying into the river.  There is a vertical rocky hillside on the right side of the tracks (river to the left) as the line runs east to Walton.  The problem is that there is a CPL just past the bridge controlling the ending of the double track from Radford yard into the single track from there to Walton.  Perhaps at one time the double track continued all the way to Walton, in which case this photo could work.  Still remaining is the reason to go to "Plum[b] Creek, of all places, to take a photo?"

Bruce in Blacksburg