Boaz Pix

[NW Mailing List]

Frank,

I would be surprised if there was ever a pusher stationed at Irving after 
the mallets came into wide-scale use in the 1920's.  It would have been an 
extremely rare occurrence for a train as heavy as a coal drag to be moving 
westbound, so there wouldn't have been the worries about drawbar strength as 
there was with eastbound coal moves.  I grew up in Farmville in the '50's 
and '60's, and my memory (which is certainly not definitive) is that any 
westbound train of average or greater length or tonnage was doubleheader out 
of Crewe.  An A and a Y or two Y's could probably handle any grade, 
including Blue Ridge, between Crewe and Roanoke.  There was actually a 
considerable grade out of Farmville westbound, but those doubleheaders had 
no trouble maintaining track speed there.  If extra power was needed for 
Blue Ridge, I'm guessing that it would be added at Kinney in Lynchburg, but 
others will certainly know more about that than I.

Sam Putney


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 10:09 PM
Subject: Boaz Pix



> Further to the Boaz conversation, the recently-published M. Hope Farrell 

> volume, N&W- Steam's Last Stand (available via the N&WHS Commissary), 

> features within the Blue Ridge section the most extensive Boaz 

> photographic treatment by far I have seen.  Some eight-plus pages, all 

> Boaz.  Arresting photography, as found throughout the volume.

>

> A related teaser:  The east-of-Blue Ridge pusher siding, for heavy lifting 

> WB to the gap at Blue Ridge, was at Irving, about four miles east of 

> Montvale.  I know of no shot of action there.  Neither VPI nor N&WHS 

> appears to have a photographic record.  Anyone seen or know of an Irving 

> shot?

>

> Another teaser:  how about mid-century shots of the Bonsack station and 

> nearby water tower, all just up the line EB from Boaz.  Neither of the 

> sources above has any as best I can determine.  Warden's volume on Ys does 

> have a partial shot of the tower.  I would surely welcome reference to a 

> full-dress photo.  VPI has an early 1900s Bonsack station image, but by 

> mid-century I think that structure had been torn down and another erected 

> on the site.  Any leads as to a pix of the mid-century structure?

>

> Frank Gibson

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