Railfanning West Virginia &Virginia

[dh671]

My son and I are going this summer to West Virginia and Virginia for a few days of railfanning. Does anyone have any good suggestions for the areas around Kenova,Huntington, or Roanoak, for good train watching spots? Thanks for any help. dh671

[billworsham]

Plenty of railfan tours here...

www.frograil.com

[Conrail Tweety]

ROANOKE:

Westview Ave. SW, north of Salem Ave, and east of Schaffer?s Crossing is on high ground overlooking the hump yard. Posted signs are in place just before the best viewing area.

The south end of 25th Street NW, south of Shenandoah Ave.

10th Street Bridge over the east yard.

5th Street Bridge over the east yard.

Shenandoah Ave between 5th St. and 2nd St.

Virginia Museum of Transportation on Norfolk Ave. east of 5th St.

30th St. NW south of Shenandoah Ave. This is high ground overlooking the yard.

Peters Creek Rd. bridge just south of Steel Dr. NW. No decent place to park here, but trains heading toward Bluefield and Bristol can be seen leaving from this area.

Under the S. Jefferson St. bridge just south of Walnut Ave. SE is the east end of the south yard, and is near the Shenandoah line toward Winston Salem, NC. Eastbound coal trains leave from here.

For a scenic overview of the entire downtown Roanoke area, follow Walnut Ave. SE from S. Jefferson St. and climb to the top of Mill Mountain.


NEAR CHRISTIANSBURG, VA:

Montgomery Tunnel. US-11 (aka US-460) east of Christiansburg to the bottom of the mountain. Follow Den Hill Road north to the tracks.

Christiansburg Depot near Depot St. and Cambria St. NE. This is just a few hundred yards west of the Allegheny Summit, the eastern continental divide.


WHITETHORNE, VA:

A bit off the beaten path. From US460 at Blacksburg, go east on Prices Fork Rd. to McCoy Rd. Turn right and follow to bottom of long grade. Left on Whitethorne Rd. and follow it to the tracks. This is where the former Virginian begins the ten-mile climb from the New River toward Merrimac Tunnel. Heavy eastbound trains stop at Whitethorne to have pushers attached. As a bonus, if you have an ATCS MCP monitor, you can see trains from Bluefield approaching this point from 30 miles away.


BLUEFIELD, WV:

If you are on I-77 in the area of Princeton or Bluefield, WV, it will be worth your time to follow US-19 thru downtown Bluefield. There are several highway bridges that cross over the NS yard

[CSXBVSub]

I have a few more between Bluefield and Kenova:

Big Four:  Behind WalMart in Welch, Big Four Tunnel portal is visible with plenty of open parking room.
Welch: Save-A-Lot parking lot is another good spot
Williamson: US 52 follows the Yard for a few miles with a park on the left side of the road (going West) which can be a good shooting area for mainline trains.
Naugatuck: Pigeon Creek Branch Wyes from the mainline here, with plenty of area in between the wye trakcs for shooting.
Kenova: CSX mainline goes under NS mainline.

[tq-07fan]

My son and I are going this summer to West Virginia and Virginia for a few days of railfanning. Does anyone have any good suggestions for the areas around Kenova,Huntington, or Roanoak, for good train watching spots? Thanks for any help. dh671

Easy answer is West Virginia is a can't lose. I to go there at least once a year. I've had such a good time I've only made it to Virginia once coming from Cincinnati. Also got to see Roanoke just before dark coming from Virginia. In Roanoke we did find a free parking garage that overlooked the N & W coming through downtown on the RR North side of the tracks.

My suggestion is to show up around Huntington, Charleston or anywhere you want on the C & O on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday when the eastbound Cardinal runs. that gives you a guaranteed train on the C & O and plus it's tri-weekly Amtrak in West Virginia. It is possible to chase the Cardinal from Huntington to Charleston and then catch it again at one more place in the New River area if you know where and how to drive. This is a total rush but if you are more into sitting and waiting go to Thurmond WV. The Cardinal is due in Thurmond at 9:36 am but check www.amtrak.com or call 1(800)USA-RAIL to find out if it is on time. The National Park Service has done a great job of restoring the depot and Thurmond is worth visiting regardless of the train being there. The three times we've done this there was a lot of traffic after the Cardinal. We also caught coal cation on the RJ Corman.

After looking around around the New River area you can take you US 19 or I-79 down to Princeton or Bluefield and look at the NS. I don't have a specific place on the Pokey because they are all good. Get a Delorme Atlas and Gazetteer take pictures and keep on moving. US 52 roughly follows the N &W all the way from Portsmouth, OH to Williamson, WV. You can take the Township / County roads to acess the tunnels west of Crum WV, worth the sidetrip. West Virginia State Route 49 continues along the N & W to Edgarton then there is no easy way or no way at all to follow the tracks until west of Panther.  US 52 picks up the N & W main again at Iaeger to Bluefield. From Bluefield WV SR 112 follows to a short stretch of US 460 to Glen Lyn on the WV / VA border then VA SR 100 to Pearisburg. I have never seen the section between Pearisburg and Roanoke in daylight. Usually there are so many trains and the area is somewhat slow driving so do not plan on seeing everything in one day. I'll leave someone else for more complete and recent detail.

I hope this helps and have fun

Jim

Pictures

1) Cardinal approaching Thurmond, passing former post office.
2) Cardinal at Thurmond which is a flag stop, one passenger off, one on. To the right of the depot is a coal train off the RJ Corman.
3) CSXT westbound at west end of Thurmond.
4) NS trains passing at Narrows VA

[ATF1224]

I also try to make it to West Virginia at least once a year.  I normally go to the old C&O mainline and I have had very good success on that line.  Charleston has some very interesting industrial spurs and there is a shortline called the Big Eagle Railroad just east of Charleston in the town of Chesapeake.

Here are my pictures from the last trip...

http://www.jakemensel.com/galleries/railroads/wv/Railroads%20in%20West%20Virginia/index.html

[thpbears]

Downtown Bluefield,WV you can park beside the NS yard. It usrally is pretty busy with passing trains. There are also several public bridges to dive across within a 2 mile stretch to take good pics on. Plus every firts saturday in November the annual Bluefield WV train show.

[Expoacher]

  I'd highly recommend getting out of the city limits and hitting west of Bluefield. Anywhere from Maybeury west to Welch will find heavy coal tonnage traffic, and with the Grade you'll be able to chase from Welch east. Don't forget most all coal drags will have two units on the rear pushing, allowing for many photog' angles.  Up around Maybeury (if they get that far without stalling out!) they'll be down to a crawl at five to ten mph.
  If you're up for something other than what the magazines portray, I'd highly suggest visiting the west portal of Elkhorn Tunnel. Turn off 52 at the post office after passing east under the massive bridge and you should be able to figure it out from there. A great place to night shoot also.
 

[NW_611]

Depending upon how willing you are to spend some money, the Link Museum in the N&W passenger station has a great vantage point that also happens to be air-conditioned. The last couple of times I've been in Roanoke during spring/summer weather, it's been miserably hot and I've gone to the station and looked down on passing trains in pleasant comfort.

I haven't bought a ticket into the museum during these times, but I figure dropping thirty or forty bucks at a time in the gift shop offsets that.

The VMT, if open, is always a great place to watch trackside, so long as you don't mind the fence. If you're in that area, give them some money---from what I understand, they need every penny.

[Robbman]

  If you're up for something other than what the magazines portray, I'd highly suggest visiting the west portal of Elkhorn Tunnel. Turn off 52 at the post office after passing east under the massive bridge and you should be able to figure it out from there. A great place to night shoot also.
 

Keep in mind that this is trespassing...

[Expoacher]

  Please ignore my last post about visiting the west portal of Elkhorn Tunnel. That is trespassing and should not be attempted. Thx.