Railroads like the Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad is a little known short line that ran between Lynchburg and Charlottesville, VA. Most who knew anything about it was that they ran steam locomotives into the early 1960's! So they were a popular railroad then. I've always like their green and black SW1's. The short line ran to various industries and interchanged with the Southern Railroad at Tye River. During this rainy week, I think back to the one of the worst natural disasters in the the state of Virginia. In August of 1969, the remnants of one of the most powerful hurricanes in US history, Hurricane Camille parked over Nelson County Virginia. During that night, a world record 27 inches of rain fell in 3-5 hours; 5 inches in a half hour! The devastation was unreal as you could imagine. Thankfully the Southern Crescent did not leave Charlottesville that evening because of a washout south of town. Little did they know the real carnage that laid ahead.
Here are some pics of railroad damage: (Garland Harper pics)
Hurricane Camille damage
Great article on the the Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad:
History of the VBR railroad
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A model of the VBR SW1 #10 |
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