Bluefield Rail Yards

Bluefield Rail Yards. Bluefield. , Bluefield, West Virginia had its beginnings as a flagstop at the farm of John Higginbotham, along the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W, now Norfolk Southern Corporation) line reaching west from Roanoke. Known in 1884 as Higginbotham’s Summit, the area was sparsely populated, with only about three farms located within the present-day city limits. At over 2,600 feet in elevation, it was the highest point along the N&W mainline; that fact, along with its proximity to the mining operations at the Pocahontas coal seam, made this an ideal location for the type of gravity-aided switching yards preferred by the railroads., The railroad arrived here in 1881. The early operations featured a single siding that could store a steam engine and three or four cars, and a discarded boxcar served as the depot. In 1887 N&W designated this site the headquarters for its Pocahontas Division. By the following year, the Bluefield yards included a coal wharf for fueling steam locomotives, a 60-foot-radius turntable, and associated 16-stall roundhouse. With the increase in coal production to the west, the roundhouse was expanded to a full-circle with 41 stalls by 1893. The rail yard became known for its complex of weighing, billing, and classification yards; mechanical and commercial shops; freight depot; and stone passenger station. By the early 1900s, over 75 miles of track were located within the city limits. With the help of gravity and pusher cars, trains ushered through the classification yard at Bluefield could hold up to 1,000 cars at one time, primarily empty hopper cars heading to the mines to be loaded., The town of Bluefield was incorporated in November 1889 and the population boomed along with the coal fields. In 1890 the census recorded 600 residents, and by 1900 that number had grown to 5,000. The city’s location as a regional rail and commercial center led to continued growth and a population of over 20,000 by 1920. Although fluctuations in the coal industry have led to a substantial decline in Bluefield’s population, the Norfolk Southern rail yards remain a major feature of the local landscape., The railroad maintains a significant presence in Bluefield and in the region’s economy. In 2007 Norfolk Southern Corporation began the Heartland Corridor rail clearance project, which included modification of tunnels and bridges to allow double-stacked freight cars to travel between the Port of Virginia and destinations in the Midwest and beyond. As part of this work, Norfolk Southern sponsored documentation of 116 bridges and tunnels along the old N&W line between Bluefield, Virginia and Bull, West Virginia., One resource included in this survey, the Harding/Belcher Street Bridge (formerly at MP 362.23 in Bluefield), was an example of a Warren through-truss steel frame bridge constructed in 1906 by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company. In recent years this one-lane bridge carried a limited amount of traffic across the eastern portion of the Norfolk Southern rail yard from Harding Street to Princeton Avenue (US 19), but functionally obsolete, an obstacle for the double-stack clearance necessary for the Heartland Corridor project, and due to concerns regarding its structural integrity the 129-foot bridge was thoroughly documented by architectural historians and demolished in 2010.