Williamson, WV: NS/N&W Roundhouse, Coal Cars and Depot

Railyard: (see below for satellite images)

Depot: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

Vicki Thomas posted
The rail road shipping yards at Williamson in Mingo County. Coal was King when this picture was taken.
Michael Taylor The largest RR yard in WV. Part of it extends up Pond Creek on the KY side of the Tug River!

The 2005 SPV Map has higher resolution pages for this area because there were several branches going into the mountains to coal mines. Some of those branches still exist.

I'm saving a satellite image to capture that it still had a lot of coal cars in it. Is the yard full because coal is still being hauled or are these cars in storage?

Satellite

It still has the roundhouse.

Satellite

Wes Wilson posted (source)

Absolutely awesome news to share this evening..

Mayor Charlie Hatfield spoke with Norfolk Southern to express his concern about the Roundhouse and other buildings and, more importantly, continued employment of our local work force, but they had already changed their plans and for now the Roundhouse will remain and not be demolished. They could however change their plans, but let's hope not!

Perhaps our next step will be to look into getting it on the National Historic Registry but this is a big “WIN” as so many doubted this would occur. Definitely the first time in my lifetime a historic structure was saved from destruction....thank you Mayor & NS!
[This is good news considering that NS just shut down Roanoke, the former N&W shops, in favor of Altoona, the fomer-Pennsy shops.]

Louis Ponton shared a VintageAerial.
Harold Hunley Williamson WVA- Still use as a car repair shop- No Locomotives in that shop.

safe_image for Williamson Roundhouse Interior

But the good news did not last long.

Steve Russo posted
Ughhh. Was there a few month's ago as it is about an hour from where I live.
Troy Nolen Just like Bluefield and Portsmouth, it was a glorified crew change point. Not surprising with the massive downturn in coal use.
Matthew John Michael Cinquemani The problem here was the City of Roanoke screwed NS hard. How do you let what essentially built the city just leave?
Absolutely disgraceful.
Ulysses Scott Adkins Roanokes problem was it didnt want to grow. They opposed a regional airport what would have kept bigger companies there back in the 70 and 80s and even yet more recent they opposed a new yard to unload trailer trucks...
Robert Henry Roanoke screwed themselves big time.
Maybe a possibility for steamtown 2.0?

Norfolk Southern does seem to be in a PSR inspired race with CSX to become just a real estate company: Norfolk Southern is getting rid of another 700 locomotives. NS probably has excess capacity because it refuses to service small customers. Are they going to "streamline operations" so that their operating ration is 0 revenue divided by 0 expenses? So how many locomotives will they have left?

safe_image for: Norfolk Southern eliminates 35 jobs from Williamson railyard
"A total of 85 employees have been eliminated from the Williamson yard in the past nine months. According to a January report in the Washington Post, Norfolk Southern has let more than 3,500 employees go in the past year, including 175 in Roanoke, as part of an aggressive push across the railroad industry to slash costs....The yard is the largest on the N&S line between Portsmouth, Ohio, and Roanoke, Virginia."
Frank Bixler Its all about the bottom line . Instead taking advantage of a slow period and get caught up on maintenance work . Oh we cant do that !
Kerry Rock Don't feel so bad guys! Cleveland is being sold out by the Toledo union by making deals and selling out old contracts!
Troy Montague And it's going to get deeper.
[Several comments indicate the NS statement "Many employees may take positions at other locations based on their seniority rights. Furloughed employees may apply for open positions on the system." is basically a lie because there are no other jobs in the system.]

Larry W Harrell posted four photos with the comment: "This is in Williamson WV. I took these 10-29-23. Station now serves as city hall. Black and White photo circa 1930s."

1

2

3

4

Normally, I would skip a photo of a bunch of freight cars in a railyard, but I came across this post the same day that I wrote about the above post so I knew the significance of coal (coke) in this yard.

Erick M Ziegler posted
Williamson WV NS yard 8-17-18
Chuckie Ratliff: The High Tops were/are loaded with Coke from Suncoke (Jewell Smokeless) in Vansant VA.