Train show in Lynchburg, VA over the weekend

Got up very early on Saturday and drove down to a yearly train show I attend every year.  My oldest son, Cameron also went down with me.  It's a smaller show but always turns up so good bargains for me and I do sell a lot of my excess items.  While my selling was OK, I did pick up a 65' gondola, a book and a Bachmann 70 tonner painted in the attractive M&ET scheme.  I actually ran upon them on my honeymoon in 2004 while passing through Modesto, CA.  It was really neat to see 3 70 tonners moving a long string of reefers.

Very well done 70 tonner in M&ET paint

On the way home, I wanted to bypass the unfortunate craziness in Charlottesville and decided to go another way home and see the original Buckingham Branch and photograph the large chip mill they have. I also grabbed some shots of two other types of loaders they have in town.  These are both not in operation but would be neat to model.

This looks as if it was a hopper loader at one time.  Probably sand trucked in.

A closer view of the loading area

This loader was on the same spur as the possible sand loader.  Maybe aggregate?

Loading shoot

The dump end

A very old Y&S boxcar rusts away

The original BB's largest customer and probably newest one: Rock Tenn wood yard.

These Westvaco wood chip hoppers are ready to be loaded.

One full hopper!

This is a massive operation.  Look at all the logs stacked in the distance.  That's only about fifth of them.

Our final stop was in the town of Orange to see if we could catch a train.  No luck on the train, but a great display on the railroad history of the town.

Lots of railroad history here in Orange, VA.  Orange is the terminus of my Virginia Midland model railroad.

This was a scary wreck back in 1965.

Some of those towns sound familiar!  This is the station list from Fredericksburg to Orange.

County map of Orange

Some more history on the Virginia Central

The wreck of the Fat Nancy Trestle just south of town

The Virginia Central rail bus.  It also had a trailer it towed.

Neat little railroad that would make an awesome model railroad

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

A model of the VBR SW1 #10

The prototype VMID line: The Virginia Central

Part two in my travels yesterday, I will show you some of the ROW of the Virginia Central Railroad. This line is what my model railroad, the Virginia Midland Railroad is based on.  The line runs 35 miles from Fredericksburg, VA southwest to Orange, VA. On my model railroad, Fredericksburg or Battlefield Yard is on the upper level and the ride down the helix is my version of heading west to Orange.
More pics can be found here:
Virginia Central ROW pics from Fredericksburg, VA to Orange, VA

The first stop on the lower level is St. Just, in Orange County.  Don't believe me?

Yes, this is St. Just.  A busy point on my model railroad.  Not alot going on here if it ever did.  Milepost 24

Nice name to the farm by the St. Just s.ign.  The ROW is to the right in the treeline in this pic.

The ROW is now a driveway to house way back in the woods.  The tracks crossed this road by the green sign.  The sign reads VA Central Ln.  The pic of the St. Just sign is directly behind me.

Here's a pic of the ROW across a field, east of St. Just.  Amazingly, when the ROW was built in the mid to late 1800's, there were no machines to do this grade, and most of it was like this for 20+ miles!

Rhoadesville, VA is also in Orange County.  As you can see, history is all around the area, from the Revoltionary War to the Civil War.  The ROW in this picture is on the right by the trees.  Milepost 28

The Rhoadesville post office.  The tracks once ran behind the post office.  Pretty sure this was a railroad station also.

Another view of the impressive grade in the treeline, just east of Rhoadesville.