RE: 1950’s Pokey Farm question #2

[NW Mailing List]

Mike,

Great choice of shots to dovetail with Chris Dalton's query. At first 
glance, the Bill Gordon shot appears to be an eastbound pulling out of 
the Middle Track onto the WB Main, given another eastbound is holding 
that main. The Class Y6b and an auxiliary tender would suggest a Weller 
(Bluefield) or River (Williamson) crew and pusher who have stopped to 
cut tonnage and service their engines. They would ease up to the 
crossover at Hemphill such that the rear clears this signal and their 
pusher can get back on for the trip up to Bluefield – typical for Farm.

However, a closer look would suggest this is the local mine run, by this 
time, First AB4 out of Auville. The engineman is looking to the rear as 
if backing loads into WB Storage. As I recall, Gordon's time frame in 
this area was late steam when Y6b's and auxiliary tenders were relegated 
to mine runs.

This also illustrates why loads are blocked at the tipple to minimize 
time on the main to set them off.

In the Archive image, the smaller, square coal chute is on the WB Main 
and appears to be a vintage Link-Belt chute that was possibly an old 
spare or salvage. Similar to the chute over the EB Main, the larger, 
round chute over the Middle Track is visible in the Gordon shot as a 
shadow under the coal bin, directly over the Middle Track only.

Pushers might take servicing on the WB Main while running around Farm, 
if Tug operator had time on the main. The WB main was normally left 
clear to run traffic around in both directions using the crossovers at 
Hemphill and Mohegan; however, extreme conditions might have an 
eastbound taking service on the WB Main. Elkhorn (Bluefield) crews did 
not take coal and water at Farm.

Edits and questions are welcome.

Grant Carpenter

On 9/3/2023 8:56 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> In this William Gordon picture, it seems that the 4 tracks immediately 
> consolidate back to a double track mainline.
>
> In this Archive image, it appears that there may only be chutes on the 
> westbound track. Does that make sense considering the direction flow 
> of the coal trains bound for the Great Lakes? The westbound tracks 
> have a large funnel type dispenser.  The outer eastbound track has a 
> possible smaller square chute, and the inner eastbound does not have a 
> visible chute (although it may just be fully raised).
>
> Mike Rector
>
> On Sun, Sep 3, 2023 at 8:46 PM NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List 
> <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>
>     Greetings to All,
>
>     During my lifetime and dispatching career on the Pokey the track
>     layout at Farm (listed north to south) has always been Main 2 (wb
>     main), Middle Track, #2 Storage, #1 Storage and Main 1 (eb main). 
>     The current track configuration has only the Middle Track running
>     directly under the coaling tower. I’ve noticed in pictures from
>     August Thieme, William Gordon and a drawing from Louis Newton that
>     in the 1950’s two tracks ran directly under the coaling tower. 
>     Can any of you guys elaborate on the 1950’s track configuration
>     and how it was used?
>
>     Thank Ya’n Out,
>     Chris Dalton
>     Bluefield, WV
>
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