N&W in 1907 -- Exposition Special

[NW Mailing List]

List:
This is pretty accurate description as far I know, as a Radford native. The road that was former ROW, at the S. end of Memorial Bridge-Rt. 11, is Hazel Hollow Road. At the intersection of Hazel Hollow and Rt. 11, the ROW made a gentile left curve and ran along the right side current Rt. 11. Before the businesses and highways made massive changes, you could see the shelf like on the embankment where the tracks were. There was (is) a business called Northside Flowers. You bear right at this building, just past the hot dog place and Hess, and you are on the old ROW (co. rt. 600) which comes from, more or less, behind/through the building.
Traveling to Belspring, you are pretty much on the old roadbed. You can tell by the flatness, cuts and gentile curves. But, there were some spots that always intrigued me. There are some creek beds that looked to have needed a little trestle to cross. One is right before you get to Belspring. In Belspring, I've always been under the impression that the tracks went right straight through and connected to the "new Walton-Parrot" cut-off at or near Parrott. Using maps.yahoo.com (better than maps.google.com in this area), it is easy to see a straight shot to the current NS main from Belspring to just beyond the end of Belspring Road in Parrott.
Don't forget to switch back and forth on either map site to see the satellite view! Trace yourself back to Radford and, if you look closely, you can see the old bridge piers!
Maybe Bud can add something.
Charlie Long

-----Original Message-----

>From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>Sent: Jun 1, 2008 8:53 PM

>To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>Subject: Re: N&W in 1907 -- Exposition Special

>

>On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 1:57 PM, Vince wrote:

>

>> Well, was back home for a visit in April, and noticed a street sign into

>> some (relatively) new apartments that said "Schooler Hill Drive". About 1/2

>> mile north of Rt. 600 / Rt. 114 intersection, which would have been the

>> highest elevation on that section.

>>

>> What I'd like to find now would be track maps from 1860-1901 showing the

>> path of the track from the "old bridge" at Radford burned during the war and

>> Schooler Hill. Page 5 of the "Class J" book published in 2000 shows a photo

>> from 1887 showing the re-built bridge. But I can only guess at the path of

>> the line between those two points.

>>

>

>The bridge that was burned was the original Virginia and Tennessee bridge

>that connected

>Radford to Bristol. It would have been replaced not long after the war

>ended.  When the

>original line was struck from Radford to the coal fields at Pocahontas, a

>new bridge was

>built (and the other replaced/upgraded) to cross the New River. The piers

>for this bridge

>still exist.

>

>When you cross the Memorial Bridge from Radford (U.S. 11) there is a road to

>the

>left right at the end of the bridge. This is the former right of way for the

>original line.

>If you travel a short way down that road, it will go from a flat elevation

>to a pretty

>quick downhill, eventually going under the existing trestle. The end of the

>bridge

>was somewhere in that transition. On the right (hillside) from this

>transition along to

>where today's tracks come off the bridge is a bench that carried a track

>that completed

>a wye.

>

>[Does anyone know when this wye track and the second bridge were fully

>abandoned?

>Was everything taken out of service with the completion of the Walton/Cowan

>line? Or

>was this piece kept in service for a while, which could explain how the

>Exposition

>specials served Radford -- run forward from Walton to Radford, cross the

>river and

>turn on the New River wye, then run forward back through Radford and on out

>of town.]

>

>Back to the end of the road bridge -- on the right side of the road, there

>used to be a

>Taco Bell or something, just beyond where a road went up into the

>residential area

>of Fairlawn. The construction of the new Memorial Bridge changed this area,

>but

>at one time there was a bench that showed where the track used to be. The

>line worked its way up through that area, which has been changed

>considerably

>with improvements to U.S. 11 and construction of various businesses.

>

>On up U.S. 11, just beyond the Wilco, Advance Auto, and a few other

>businesses,

>Va. 600 takes off to the right. That is where the line continued to climb,

>heading

>toward today's crossing of VA 114 and on out 600 toward Belspring. Because

>of

>changes in Belspring, it isn't clearly apparent where the line crossed the

>bottom

>land there and tied in to the existing line.

>

>>From a Table of Elevations from a July 9, 1886 letter to F. J. Kimball:

>

>Central1773 New River1768 Schooler1910 Belspring1769 Tyler1692 Back Creek

>1690 Benton1653 Eggleston Springs1644

>(see http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bharper/nwrwy/NWElevations.html)

>

>Bruce in Blacksburg