"Bottling the Air"

[NW Mailing List]

Although a run-away train east out of Bluefield might reach the Jug Neck and derail as described by Harry Bundy, a run-away cut of cars in Bluefield East Yard would more likely be derailed by the device of the same name at the east end of the departure tracks as shown in the attached photo.  I don't know the date of this mishap, but a copyright on the back of the photo is 2000.

I can imagine that the wreckmaster shook his head when he first viewed this mishap.

Incidentally, for traction fans, the Tri-City Traction Co. Princeton-Bluefield interurban line ran alongside the county road in the upper center of the photo.  The line was on the north (right-hand side or inside-of -the-curve side) of the road, but the roadbed is obscured by vegatation growth since abandonment April 7, 1947.

Gordon Hamilton

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
  Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 8:55 AM
  Subject: Re: "Bottling the Air"









  Thanks, Bruce.  Apparently the drag I rode back to Roanoke
  had not been put on yard air and pre-tested.  There was an
  interesting event that occurred at East Yard about 1972.  If
  you remember, there's a 12 degree reverse curve five or so
  miles east of Bluefield -- Jug Neck Curve.  If there was a
  run-away from Bluefield, supervision and wreck forces
  immediately went to Jug Neck to make an appraisal.  There
  was a coal train that got away, the head-end crew bailed
  off and the forces headed to Jug Neck to pick up the pieces.
  There, they found the derailed coal cars, but no engines.  The
  engines negotiated the curve and, engineer-less, continued
  east.  Despite the loss of air, the compressors on the engines
  kept the brakes off.  The run-away collided with a local 
  switching the APCO plant at Glen Lynn.  Harry Bundy


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