I find some of these utilitarian railroad trestles across rivers quite satisfying.
Lancefield East angles across a shoal in the French Broad River. Keep going on this and you’ll leave Cocke County TN and hit Madison County NC in just a few miles. The trestle is 960′ long, with a handy walkway provided. I’ve been on a walkway similar to this when a train came by. I was safe enough, but that much power and sheer tonnage was certainly impressive. And loud.
Month: November 2017
Back in Williamson VA
This is one of several pedestrian walk-throughs under the N&S lines in Williamson. I show this to contrast to how St. Paul VA solved their problem with the rail line: they took the whole street under the tracks.
Hatfield Crossing
The junction box identifies this crossing as Hatfield. The town of Hatfield, though, is a little over 5 miles to the northwest. I was looking slightly north northwest when I took this picture. I’m just across Tug Fork from Williamson KY yard. The truss bridge, canted to bear the weight shift on a curve, was made by Virginia Bridge and Iron, in Roanoke, in 1913. The road is Kentucky 292. If you look just above the bridge, you can see part of a long coal conveyor belt.
Williamson WV Rail Yard
While Norfolk Western laid down a line through Williamson in 1892 or so, they didn’t build the big consolidation and repair yard until 1901. It has a roundhouse, but I wasn’t able to get a decent picture of it. It shows up quite well on Google Earth, though.
You can also see from the satellite image the fairly wide suspension pedestrian walkway that spans the yard. It is gated, but I was able to climb the rickety stairs that access the northern bridge support tower. This is looking southeast:
This is looking across the yard showing the pedestrian bridge (there’s a date on the building in the center, 1926):
And this is looking northwest or so:
This is the best view I could get of the roundhouse, taken from a 1913 truss bridge over the Tug Fork on the southern side of the yard:
Blogging the Railroad Tunnels 