N&W in 1911--Pumping station

[NW Mailing List]

Gordon:
 
I lived in Bluefield VA 1947-1953, and the station was not in the location  
shown on the drawing you attached.  It was definitely between the main line 
 and the Clinch Valley line.  It could not have been where the drawing 
shows  because by then Virginia Avenue was in place approximately where the 
dashed  lines are in the drawing.  The picture I remember also shows the  
little-known electrification of the Clinch Valley line as far as Tip Top.
 
In the "Images of America" series book for Bluefield Virginia on page 58,  
the station pictured on the bottom is the one I remember.  Unfortunately  
you can't tell from that picture exactly where it stood.  The picture at  the 
top depicts the track arrangement shown in your drawing.  I have seen a  
picture of the station that places it where I remember, but I couldn't put my  
hands on it in the short time available tonight.  I'll look some more  
tomorrow.
 
Incidentally, if you want to know what I looked like in the fourth grade  
(cringe....) look on page 86 of that book; I'm the little guy with the big 
ears  in the front right as you look at the picture.  Contrary to the 
"perhaps"  of the caption, that really was just the fourth grade, no doubling up.  I 
 have fond memories of Mrs. Hardy, even if she did threaten to flunk me if 
my  penmanship didn't improve!
 
I'll keep digging.  Maybe the N&WHS archives or the Virginia Tech  
collection will show something.
 
Dave
 
 
In a message dated 2/13/2011 9:03:36 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

Dave,
 
I placed the Bluefield, VA station on  the south side of the track from 
memory, but knowing the fallibility of my  memory, I checked track drawings in 
the Archives at this week's session and  found a 1917 drawing of the 
proposed station in the location where I  remembered it, a pertinent portion of 
which drawing is attached.  It even  shows the steps down to the pedestrian 
underpass and steps up to the platform  on the north side of the Clinch Valley 
line and to both platforms on the main  line, all somewhat as I remember it. 
 There is also a grade crossing  of the tracks provided for use of baggage 
and mail platform trucks.   Incidentally the 1924 N&W Annual Report 
indicates that a new station  was built in Bluefield, VA that year.
 
Because the drawing referred to the  proposed station, I consulted with 
Louis Newton to see if the station  were actually built in the location shown 
on the drawing.  Louis checked  his notebook sketches from his days as road 
foreman of engines on the  Pocahontas Division, and his sketch of the actual 
location of the station  agreed with the location of the proposed station 
shown on the  drawing.
 
I believe that I recall that you  lived in Bluefield, VA, so I would 
appreciate any comments you may have  that would indicate whether more research 
needs to be done in order that  information posted on the Mailing List be as 
accurate as  possible.
 
Gordon Hamilton

----- Original Message ----- 
From:  _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
To: _nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2011 7:50  AM
Subject: Re: N&W in 1911--Pumping  station


Gordon:
 
I suspect you may have meant to say either that "In later  years...station 
was on the north side of the Clinch Valley  track...." or that it was on the 
"....south side of the main line  track...". 
 
Dave Phelps
 
 
In a message dated 2/12/2011 6:46:47 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
_nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)   writes:

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
June 21,  1911
 
THE GRAHAM DAILY NEWS
------
New Pumping Station
    Workmen have begun the foundation for  the addition to Norfolk and 
Western pumping station here.  The stone  is being received from the quarry on 
the premises of Mrs. A. C. Davidson  at Nemours for the masonry work.
------
[In 1911 at the junction where the Clinch Valley  line branched off the 
main line there was a track (long since gone)  between the Clinch Valley line 
and the main line west of the junction  that formed a wye with the main line 
and the Clinch Valley  line.  The pumping station was inside the wye and 
pumped water from  the nearby Bluestone River to be piped to the N&W's 
facilities in  Bluefield, WV.  In later years the Bluefield, VA, passenger station  
was on the south side of the Clinch Valley track not far from where the  
pumping station was located.  But in 1911 the combined freight  and passenger 
station was located east of the junction at Spruce  street.  Nemours, WV 
(where the stone for the pumping station was  quarried) is located on the N&W 
between Flat Top Yard and Bluestone  Jct., and was the site of a large E. I. 
du Pont de Nemours & Co.  gunpowder plant, presumably located there to supply 
the coalfields (or  maybe the Hatfields and McCoys).]
 
Gordon  Hamilton


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