Building at 310 Shenandoah Ave SW

[NW Mailing List]

Thank you Abram and Bruce. 

By mentioning the Amshack building, it jogged my memory about some photos I took in 1975 at that location. Apparently the building in question didn’t raise my curiosity at the time. But it does appear in this photo of the business car being removed from the Mountaineer upon which I had just arrived (the Mountaineer not the business car).

 

Don Trettel



 

 

From: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2024 8:48 AM
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Building at 310 Shenandoah Ave SW

 

On Sat, Feb 24, 2024 at 7:25 AM abram wrote:

Mr. Trettel Ye Asketh: 

  

" What was the 2 story brick structure at the subject address often seen on 

the VMT Virtual Railfan camera? It certainly appears that it was a railroad 

facility of some sort and is adjacent to a NS maintenance building. In the 

N&W days was it a yard office or something else? " 

  

Good question !  

  

That building was part of a "Huff Mill" complex, which extended westward from this point, lying between the Westbound Main Line and Shenandoah Ave.  Huff Mill (so named because of an earlier property the railroad acquired around 1900 from a man name Huff) was the location of the first Signal Department Buildings, and the Signal Department continued to occupy them until the department was relocated to East End Shops sometime around, or shortly before, 1960.  The Huff Mill buildings always struck me as an assemblage of ill-matched structures, cobbled together from re-purposed old buildings and some newer construction, almost garish in their lack of uniformity.  I was only in those buildings once or twice, but on those occasions I remember seeing work being done on signal relays, switch movements and Position Light Signal arms (which some would call "heads.")  O have also heard that at one time this shop worked on the gasoline powered Motor Cars used by the Signal Maintainers. 

 

To add to abram's great answer, some more info:

 

This derailment photo was posted in the Fans of the Norfolk & Western and Virginian Railway group on Facebook on February 9 with the caption

Derailment! Here’s a photograph showing a Norfolk & Western A Class locomotive passing some derailed boxcars in Roanoke, Virginia circa late 1950’s. Photographer unknown.


The photo from the Archives was added to the thread. Both show interesting details about the Signal Shop on Shenandoah. The Google Map view shows the current layout. The large rectangular buiiding in the middle was the Amshack passenger station from the days of the Mountaineer and the Hilltopper before Amtrak service was ended in the early 1980s. Google street view shows some good looks at the buildings. The one in question looks like it had a full-width porch roof on the southern end. Building 36 is interesting with the wind sock at the top -- a good indicator (if it works) of which way the wind is blowing if there is a tank car derailment or spill with hazardous gas or chemicals.

 

Bruce in Blacksburg

 

 

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