Roanoke Belt Line Right-of-Way Question

[NW Mailing List]

John, you are correct. The Rorer line (and it’s Rorer, not Rohrer) cut
across present day Brandon Avenue below Towers mall, approximately behind
Wheelers Laundry. It ran towards Wasena along the river and crossed just to
the right of today’s Wasena Bridge.

The land transfers are a last bit of research I have yet to do. Abram is
raises a good point, in that the Rorer land would have been mostly
abandoned after the successor iron company moved its ore washing operations
closer to the mine, and built a transfer platform directly at the Winston
Salem track near present-day Tanglewood Mall. However, I still haven’t done
the vital courthouse research on all the land transfers to see what that
story looks like.


I’m also not at my files, so I can’t recall when the beltline was
constructed, but I seem to recall it was before the narrow gauge track was
abandoned. There was a necessary diamond which we still haven’t found a
drawing for, and it would be located along the River between Brandon Avenue
and the ice house which is now condominiums.

Stephen Warren


On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 3:15 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> Mr. Stephen Warren may be the authority on this matter but . . .
>
>
>
> The Rohrer Iron Co right-of-way is simultaneous with the Roanoke Belt Line
> only form a point approximately where Murray Run joins the Roanoke River
> (street-wise see Brandon Ave. and 23rd St SW) to Wasena. That cuts your
> distance in question to about half.
>
>
>
> John Garner
>
>
>
> *From:* NW Mailing List [mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 23, 2019 12:37 PM
> *To:* N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> *Subject:* Roanoke Belt Line Right-of-Way Question
>
>
>
> A thought just occurred to me...
>
>
>
> Might the N&W, in constructing its Roanoke Belt Line, have acquired by
> purchase, from the surviving interests of the Rorer Iron Company, the Rorer
> right-of-way between Franklin Road and Wasena, in Roanoke?
>
>
>
> That is a distance of approximately 4600 feet, depending on where one
> fixes the end points.
>
>
>
> Given the topography, there is not much question that the Roanoke Belt
> Line is situated virtually smack-dab on top of the old Rorer right-of-way
> between these points.  The question is, how and from whom did the N&W
> acquire the land?
>
>
>
> It would be interesting to see the dates of purchase for the various real
> estate parcels on the Roanoke Belt Line, and to see if they were acquired
> by purchase in fee, or by condemnation.  Given that the N&W owned and
> controlled everything in Roanoke, my guess is that the parcels were
> acquired by purchase without litigation.
>
>
>
> -- abram burnett
>
> Turnips "Of Interest" to the Intelligence Community
>
>
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