Pulaski Anthracite Tipple at Parrott ... ?

[NW Mailing List]

Papa Abram; thank you so much.  Working on a presentation about the Pokey
Roads' motive power, we ran across the only 2-6-2 which is also the only
camelback on all three railroads.  Pursuing this we learned that there was
a small  pocket of anthracite in western Virginia, served by a few mines on
the Virginian and the Norfolk & Western.  There is a view of what looks
like a "breaker" on the CoalCampUSA site.  The little bit we've been able
to find out about the area is very interesting, and we'd like to learn
more.  You might find it interesting to go to Google Maps and look for
McCoy, Virginia.

Of course we've been encouraging (OK, nagging)the guys from that area to
host an NWHS convention some year.  We've even offered to help.

Frank Bongiovanni

On Sat, May 22, 2021 at 8:30 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> History is wonderful !
>
> For all the years I ran up and down the Radford Division, I never knew
> there had once-upon-a-time been a coal mine and tipple just west of
> Parrott, Virginia.  A place my Grandfather had probably switched a hundred
> times, at the least.
>
> But now, with the veritable explosion of knowledge over the last 35 years,
> due to the Internet and the digitization of old books and maps, finding out
> things has become almost as easy as tapping one's fingers.
>
> So, attached is an image from the John W. Barriger Collegtion at the St
> Louis Mercantile Library.  It is numbered in sequence with Mr. Barriger's
> other Radford Division images,and I am therefore somewhat confident it
> shows the Pulaski Coal Company breaker or tipple just west of Parrott.
> (What did the company call this facility?  Was it a tipple, a breaker, or
> something else?)
>
> The negative was abysmal.   Slow film, grossly underexposed, almost no
> contrast, and suffering from lens motion.  Only the True Miracle of
> Photoshop permits the resurrection of such photographic tragedies.
>
> Lining up the satellite imagery with this photograph, it appears that the
> structure was located at approximately these coordinates:  37.21759,
> -80.61689
>
> My suspicion is that the coal business here dried up during the Great
> Depression.  Does anyone know for sure the dates of the opening and closing
> of the facility, and whatever became of the Pulaski Anthracite Company?
> Also, to what market was this coal sent for consumption?
>
> Did Parrott ever have an agency station?  If not, what agency handled the
> waybilling and car reporting, Bellspring or Eggleston?
>
> We need to send out as our Investigative Reporter the Hon. Mr. R.ervine,
> Lord High Commissioner of the Fairlawn-Schooler-Parrott Metroplex.
>
> One more thing to comment on.  Note the double pole line.  The 440v AC had
> been installed on a new south-side pole line at the time this photo was
> taken, and the signal circuits (and probably the telegraph circuits as
> well) were on the north side.  I would love to know when 440v was added and
> that new pole line was constructed.  Guess:  440 AC was probably put on the
> pole line at the same time AC track circuits were installed... but when was
> that ???
>
> Attachment.
>
> -- abram burnett,
> Suspended Sentence Turnips
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