N&W Cripple Creek Extension

[NW Mailing List]

Bruce:
Thanks for your excellent documentation on the branch (extension). Other than the bridge that I mentioned in another e-mail, is there anything identifiable in the satellite views or aeriel shots, ie., the turntable?
Charlie Long 

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

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

>Sent: Nov 27, 2010 4:10 PM

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

>Subject: Re: N&W Cripple Creek Extension

>

>On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 10:21 AM, Jim wrote:

>

>>  Gordon

>>

>> Did you notice two and possibly 3  switchbacks on the map?  Now if we could

>> find N&W track  charts for that time period they would fill in the rest of

>> the story.

>>

>

>Did you say "track charts"? Go to

>http://www.brucebharper.info/nwrwy/CrippleCreek.html for 1927 track charts

>for the Ivanhoe to Speedwell portion of the North Carolina Branch, including

>the Norma Branch. Note the change of web address, I maxed out the space

>available to staff in the VT filebox system, so I moved to some server space

>I have where I host some other web sites.

>

>The track charts are probably second or third-generation copies of

>blueprints made in the early '90s when Grant Carpenter and I and some of the

>others in the Blacksburg bunch were chasing the last days of the North

>Carolina Branch and tracking some of the old branches after the line shut

>down. Someone had a contact in the N&W engineering department who had

>legitimate access to the charts to make a copy. Depending on what has been

>transferred to the historical society, the chart may be in a drawer

>somewhere in the archives. I tried to clean up the negative photocopy and

>convert it to a positive and sharpen it when I scanned the pages. I'll work

>on scanning the rest of the chart as I can.

>

>In the meantime, the track chart at Cripple Creek shows the short piece of

>track that leads to the turntable shown on Dr. Randolph Chitwood's map and

>the branch running behind the station. It also shows the Norma Branch

>climbing quite a bit, with some 16-degree curves in there, with the N&W

>portion ending just after crossing a 127-foot bridge, at an elevation of

>2,287 feet.

>

>Grant and I did manage to make it up that way and I remember seeing the

>Raven Cliff furnace, but I don't remember going through Cripple Creek. I'll

>have to dig out my slides from our trips down that way to add to the site,

>to document the end of service on that line.

>

>I'm ready for a road trip.

>

>Bruce in Blacksburg