Vicker and Walton Coaling Stations

[NW Mailing List]

Bruce in Blacksburg wrote:
> See http://www.brucebharper.info/nwrwy/vicker.html for how things looked
> before the concrete tower was built.

The orininal coaling station at Vicker was placed into service in 1918.
https://imagebase.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/norfolksouthern/glass_plates/screen/03GP0464.jpg

Before that, the coaling station and water tanks were at Walton. It had an
incline ramp on the north side of the tracks (still apparent today) for
the loaded hoppers which were emptied into smaller dump cars that operated
on the coal wharf itself. It was placed into service during the fiscal year
ending June 30th 1902, presumably in connection with the construction of the
low grade through Cowan tunnel that bypsassed the facilities at Radford.

By the way, this VT image to which Bruce's page links is clearly not of the
Vicker coaling station, since it was constructed with a single span over four
tracks (not Bruce's fault - it is mis-identified in the VT imagebase):
https://imagebase.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/norfolksouthern/glass_plates/screen/03GP0464.jpg
I'm not 100% certain, but it believe it is the one at Walton. The position of
the water tanks and softener building match the layout depicted on archives
drawing HS-T00019 ( http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=123312 ).

(In-service dates are from the annual reports).

Joe Shaw
Christiansburg, VA