Evolution of coal traffic over the Blue Ridge.

[NW Mailing List]

While we are on the subject of mainline hopper movements (or maybe this
should be broken off into its own little thing) I'm looking for information
on hoppers moving between roanoke and Norfolk in the steam era and how it
changed.

I have a pretty good idea of how it ended thanks to "pillars of smoke in
the sky". Quick recap, a y6 on the front with another pushing would take
100 hoppers to some siding just over the blue ridge. Then a Y6 and a A at
the front (both with auxiliary tanks) and a y6 at the back would take 140
hoppers over the range. The pusher would disconnect, 50 of those 100 would
be attached on (was there a dedicated switcher for that siding) and the two
head engines would run 190 cars down to the end of the Lynchburg belt which
had the other major grade. From here the Y6 cuts off and the A takes it
into Norfolk.

There are a few questions that I have in terms of how this operation
evolved. For one I think this operation breaks all of the rules in the
tonnage ratings (at least the ones from 1955), so I dont have a good idea
of when this operation began. More importantly, all the motive power
involved gets upgraded pretty substantially between its introduction in
1936 and 1957. The A gets a PSI bump from 275 to 300 in the early 40s and
the auxiliary tenders in the late 50's, and the Y6s get auxiliary tenders,
increased combustion chambers, the superheated steam booster, and im sure
some other things. Finally I dont know how long this trip took. The A is
fast for sure, but for about half of the trip it has a Y6 in front which
may slow it down.

In summary, questions are.
1. When does the operation in "pillars of smoke in the sky" get introduced?
2. How long did it take to get from Roanoke to Norfolk?
2. What did coal hauling operations look like before this?  Looking for how
it changed between 1940 and the end of steam.

Many thanks,

Zachary Negaard
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