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| Tim Starr posted The Roanoke Shops of the Norfolk and Western were in the Top 10 of all time. They designed and built their own locomotives over many years, something that very few shop sites ever even attempted (Altoona, Mt. Clare, and Sacramento were others). Many Class 1 shops had the ability to put together a locomotive, but it was almost always sporadic to fill a specific need, such as for yard switchers or during wartime when manufacturers couldn't keep up with orders. Roanoke designed and built hundreds of locomotives that were known for dependablility and pulling power. (N&W Historical Photograph Collection) |
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| Stephen Preston posted N&W railway Yards and freight station, Roanoke, Va. c.1910. |
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| Nina Oliphant posted |
This is another coaling tower that served several tracks. It is too bad the locomotive skunked the base of the tower so that we can't tell exactly how many tracks had chutes. I'd say at least three, maybe four.
See also the N&W Depot and Freight House.
Since the turntable of the roundhouse still exists, it is easy to correlate the current layout with a 1960 aerial photo that still had the tower. The roundhouse was 360-degrees except for the lead track. But part of the roundhouse had longer stalls. In fact, the remaining stalls tracks are most of that arc of longer stalls. The coaling tower was a little west of a line extended south from 25th Street. For the first time in my studies, I have found a turntable that has been added. It is not in the 1969 aerial, but it is in the 1995 aerial.
Notice that Roundhouses in the title is plural. The turntables that are on the east and west sides of the backshops had roundhouses. In fact, part of the east roundhouse still exists!
The above turntables are in the East End Shops. It was N&W's heavy repair backshop. This was were N&W made their own steam locomotives after the regular builders of steam locomotives went out of business. "Between 1884 and 1953, the Roanoke Shops (also called the East End Shops) built 447 steam locomotives, all for the N&W. The best-known of these are Class J 4-8-4 No. 611, built in 1950; Class A 2-6-6-4 No. 1218, built in 1943; and Class Y6A 2-8-8-2 No. 2156, built in 1942. In 1953, the shop built its final locomotive, Class S1a 0-8-0 No. 244, the last steam locomotive manufactured in the United States for domestic use." NS closed the shops in Feb 2020 in favor of their Juniata Shops in Altoona, PA. NS will continue to emply 650 people in the Ronoke Valley, but N&W used to employ more than 5000 employees here. [RailwayAge] It appears that Genesis Rail Services now makes use of at least some of the buildings.
Update:
Ed Lee posted six photos with the comment:
While studying the former-Virginia depot, I accessed this topo map.
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| Satellite, west |
Notice that Roundhouses in the title is plural. The turntables that are on the east and west sides of the backshops had roundhouses. In fact, part of the east roundhouse still exists!
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| Satellite, east |
The above turntables are in the East End Shops. It was N&W's heavy repair backshop. This was were N&W made their own steam locomotives after the regular builders of steam locomotives went out of business. "Between 1884 and 1953, the Roanoke Shops (also called the East End Shops) built 447 steam locomotives, all for the N&W. The best-known of these are Class J 4-8-4 No. 611, built in 1950; Class A 2-6-6-4 No. 1218, built in 1943; and Class Y6A 2-8-8-2 No. 2156, built in 1942. In 1953, the shop built its final locomotive, Class S1a 0-8-0 No. 244, the last steam locomotive manufactured in the United States for domestic use." NS closed the shops in Feb 2020 in favor of their Juniata Shops in Altoona, PA. NS will continue to emply 650 people in the Ronoke Valley, but N&W used to employ more than 5000 employees here. [RailwayAge] It appears that Genesis Rail Services now makes use of at least some of the buildings.
There are two more turntables. One in the east end and...
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| Satellite |
...one in the main yard. Note the multiple positions of the turntable. I think that means it was rotating as the satellite flew overhead.
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| Satellite |
The railyard includes a hump yard.
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| Francis Otterbein posted NS Rail Yard Roanoke,Va [There were several comments concerning the perspective.] |
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| Joe Dunlap commented on the above posting Better GE view w/3D shops |
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| Joe Dunlap commented on the above posting GE 3D view really is an amazing technology! Although, it almost looks as though the camera caught the turntable in mid-turn. |
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| Nina Oliphant posted |
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| Norfolk Southern Corp posted
Norfolk Southern has 4,550 employees, 3,170 railroad retirement recipients, and 1,990 miles of track in the Old Dominion. The Norfolk Southern Foundation has contributed $23 million to Virginia communities over the last five years.
Pictured: Shaffers Crossing
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Ed Lee posted six photos with the comment:
Old Norfolk and Western Passenger Car assembly Roundhouse in Roanoke Va still stands or at least 2/3 of it does . There was another a few hundred yards to the west for Locomotives. The long buildings pictured on this side of the roundhouse are from L to R : Blacksmiths Shop , Machine Shop ,Erecting Shop and Boiler shop. The N&W / NS "East End Shops" have been in continuous operation since the 1880s .Sadly they are closing soon.
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| 1 Doug Kaiser That's a lot of action going on in that space. |
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| 6 Car Roundhouse is at right. Locomotive Roundhouse was at left turntable. |
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| safe_image for Editorial: End of an era for Roanoke [The locomotive shops were closed on May 18, 2020 leaving the shop in Altoona, PA, as the only NS shop still operating. After the text is a rather large photo selection.] |
While studying the former-Virginia depot, I accessed this topo map.
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| 1933 Roanoke Quad @ 62,500 |
I quickly spotted five roundhouses along the main route of the N&W. It makes sense that a lot of locomotives would have to be serviced to provide the horsepower needed to haul coal out of the mountains. The town still handles a lot of locomotives, Unfortunately, they are in storage. There are locomotives from the left side to the right side of this satellite image, up to three tracks deep. I counted off 10 from the lower-right and then estimated that there is over a hundred locos in storage.
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| Satellite |
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| Jerry Fuller posted Bob Altice: Randolph St. tower , with the east end shops in the background. Raymond Storey shared ROANOKE VA |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Raymond's share A comment on the post called this the Randolph Street Tower. I could not find Randolph Street in Google Maps, but the comment also mentioned "east end shops." That I did find. Note that the building on the left and the turntable on the right still exist. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shHZUj5K... John Katz: A sad and lonely place now. All of the former railroad brick buildings in the photo are up for sale. The last use for the buildings on the right were rebuild facilities changing DC locomotives to AC traction until closed, with the conversions now taking place in Altoona. |
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| Soutwest Virginia Rails posted Roanoke’s now closed East End shops loom in the back ground as dash 9 #9736 brings hopper train NS 827 into Roanoke for a crew change. This train is bound for the Clinch Valley district after it traverses the Christiansburg district to Bluefield. 3-25-2023 |
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| Tim Starr posted Interior view of the massive machine shop at Roanoke VA in the 1940s. (Norfolk & Western collection) |
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| Steven J. Brown posted Norfolk Southern Shops in Roanoke, Virginia - April 24, 2016. |
Ray Schloss commented on a photo of a new ore car: "No more FreightCar America 🇺🇸 in Roanoke 😣. When I toured that plant in 2014 they were cranking out an aluminum hopper car at the rate of 1 an hour. https://www.virginiabusiness.com/.../roanoke-plant-still.../" (The "View post" link will get you to the parent post and more photos of the ore cars.)
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