This was in Telford. I took the reference picture sometime in the late 70s. The original drawing is much larger (it had a left vanishing point approximately 9′ from the drawing itself). I sold it a decade or so ago. Later, in 2004, I decided to do another take on it.
Author Archives: Bob Lawrence
Eureka Roller Mills
Old Virgnia-Carolina Railroad trestle
You’ll see pictures of this stately old trestle all over the web, but here’s the story. It’s part of the Creeper Trail now and spans the confluence of the Middle Fork and the South Forks of the Holston River (a guy named Holstein was the first non-Native American to come paddling down this watery avenue…probably a million Native Americans paddled down it before he got here, so where are their names? And who now knows those names?). Anyway, the Creeper Railroad was built by the Virginia-Carolina Railroad, reaching Damascus from Abingdon (after a long, tortuous time a-building) in 1900. Many a train thundered over this trestle, until the line fell into disrepair and was abandoned. Some people with amazing vision created the Creeper Trail, an outstanding stretch of rails-to-trails. It’s more fun than that hellish (for me) 12-mile Guest River Gorge trail on the railbed of the former Interstate Railroad (someone once asked me if I were a railfan, or “foamer” as they’re sometimes known, and I said, “No, I’m into trackage.” ), but just as scenic. This trestle is so pleasant on a warm summer day.
Nobody comes here anymore
This is in east Jenkins KY. We got a number of pix in a brief stop here.
Greenhouse, Christmas
This Backer’s Florists, which used to be located at the corner of Watauga and Charlemont Streets. The location is a parking lot for a funeral home now. It had snowed that night and I was out walking in it, with my camera, and I saw this view. It’s been worked on a fair bit, since the original was an analog image.
Teddy by the tracks
I saw this in the former Miller Yard in Virginia. I don’t know what it means. It’s a little teddy bear tied to hollow tube that holds a tool the train guys use for something (I really know a lot about whatever it is I’m writing about….really). It’s all covered in coal dust.
Mask
You just never know what you’ll see if you look up while walking in downtown Greeneville:
On the Porch
I was sitting in a friend’s Florida room, formerly a porch, when this combination of color caught my eye. It yielded an interesting picture, after I slapped it around with Photoshop.
Red Spotted Newt
Yep, saw this little skitterer while walking the rails in Southwest Virginia.
Bird, maybe
It does look a little like a long-necked bird with a curved and pointed beak, doesn’t it. It’s what’s left of a small tree. Ain’t nature fahcinating!
Coke ovens
Coke ovens, in this configuration and in the beehive configuration, used to be thick on the ground around this area of Wise County. We’re near Pine Branch and these are a few of the 60 remaining derelict coke ovens…there used to be over 300 here, with railroad access, from around 1920 to about 1980. They were used to burn coal in the absence of oxygen to produce coke, which burns cleanly at high temperature. Catnip, as they say, for steel makers.
Honk
I saw this in the street outside an abandoned grocery store in Cumberland, Kentucky. It was early on a Sunday morning. Must have been some Saturday night…
Mom’s button box
This thing has to be a half-century old now. Mom always had to have a good supply of buttons, since she sewed a lot.
Looking out of the tunnel
There’s a nameless tunnel in Whitesburg KY. It was once used by the L&N before the line went out of use in the late 80s or so. The tunnel’s not very long, maybe 100′ or so, and features a creek running through it. This is looking out the eastern face of the tunnel.
Barns in the morning sun
This is actually just off a busy highway in Weber City VA. The morning sun made the shot.
FinePix F200EXR, 1/125 at f11. ISO 200
Snow Trees
I took this on Bays Mountain just after a wet snow had blown into the area.
