Norfolk Southern railroad

Williamson WV Rail Yard

Bob Lawrence3 Comments

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:
yardlookingsoutheast

This is looking across the yard showing the pedestrian bridge (there’s a date on the building in the center, 1926):
yardlookingsouth

And this is looking northwest or so:
yardnorthwest

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:
roundhouse

Lonesome Valley Road Trestle

Bob Lawrence2 Comments

Looking up at the northwest end of the trestle, which is about 708′ long and around 100′ high, over Lonesome Valley Road in Claiborne County TN.   Here’s the southeast end:

 

This is on the same Norfolk Southern line I discussed in the Oakman tunnels posting.  This trestle, old as it appears, was most certainly a replacement or reinforcement of an existing trestle.  The original concrete footers are still there.