trestle pic on bing homepage today

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

Kind of sad, kind of cool.  http://www.bing.com/

[richg]

Nicww.

I think you mean, Trestle.

Rich

[Jerrys HO]

GG
Did you watch the video. Looks like there is another bridge (or is it a girder) that trail crosses.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Virginia+Creeper+Trail&form=hphot2&first=1&view=detail&mid=429ED75B357BC90D6119429ED75B357BC90D6119

Very nice country, wish I was there.

Jerry

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

Nicww.
I think you mean, Trestle.
Rich

Fixed it just for you! Oh, and everyone else too!

Ive already admitted to being a lousy speller. Try asking me to remember a string of twenty or thirty numbers.
I need about a minute, and can remember for a day or two.


More sad... Names withheld ..yadda.. yadda... Im hot under the collar so Im typing till cool.
A family I know freely gave miles of land to a northern city, and the railroads in the 1800's under the condition it would revert back to the family trust should the rails ever be lifted or the population abandon the city down to like twenty people or some ridiculous number like that. The deal also included no property tax on a small lot, barn and house for as long as the family owned it, or till it was built new. The city has tried multiple times to seize it during my life time. And even though they still owned miles of taxable land bordering the now abandoned rails, our last Governor influenced the courts to decide not to even hear the case to review the contract "due to its age"! Wouldn't even consider a fair market value buy back. The majority of this "rail to trail" now runs through their property. The railroads took much better care of this land. Garbage, crime, blight. The families land is still mostly virgin wilderness and not one no trespassing sign. "Rails to Trail of Tears"  Our families have unwittingly but obviously bumped into each other off and on since the 1700s in the Black Forest of Germany, Canada, and twice in the US, 100s of miles, and 100 years apart. My family was in the next town over in the 1800s, smaller, but in the same lines of business, gilding, ice house, orchards, rye, and lumber. My buddy and I went to the same ball fields (a bigger city, far away) , became friends for about 5 years and figured it all out about 25 years ago while planning a vacation together...........venting is relaxing. see you.     
   

[J3a-614]

Oh, so bittersweet--that's the Virginia Creeper trail, which we rail people remember as the Abington-West Jefferson branch of the Norfolk & Western.  This line was worked with class G 2-8-0s and class V 4-6-0s, and later class M 4-8-0s.

The called out links on the photo:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Virginia+Creeper+Trail&form=hphot1

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Virginia+Creeper+Trail&form=hphot2&first=1&view=detail&mid=429ED75B357BC90D6119429ED75B357BC90D6119

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Damascus%2C+Virginia&form=hphot3

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Blue+Ridge+Mountains+Virginia&FORM=hphot4

Oh, I can't say how much I wish the tracks were still there--and that the Strasburg's 475 and sister 433 on display at Abington (class M 4-8-0s) could once again be ridden behind, be seen, and be heard climbing to White Top. . .

Not the best video in the world, but it's the only one I could find featuring O. Winston Link's sounds of M class 382 arriving and departing from Green Cove, Va., on the Abington branch.  The engine had a home-made whistle that sounded like nothing else on the N&W:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9kkl1-HmB8

Reenacting the Virginia Creeper on the Strasburg with the 475 dressed up as the 382, and with the 382's whistle, which has survived.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSolc8Nb5k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goM_7b7Vlos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJPzZLur4ho

[J3a-614]

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/selectdocs.php?index=d&id=15

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/selectdocs.php?index=d&id=15

Id like to see that 429. ( Imagine a Lansing to Lansing run, NC to Mich.)