This is a well-known video. By the spring of 1957, the clock was running down on these guys. The bulk of the footage was shot around Blue Ridge, Virginia. The Norfolk & Western Railway crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains there. The locale is ten miles or so east of Roanoke, Virginia. Roanoke is down in a valley, on the Roanoke River. Loaded coal trains, headed east from Roanoke, needed helpers getting up and over the Blue Ridge. Westbound trains, consisting mostly of empty cars, made the grade unassisted.
Don't be too alarmed by the scene at 6:43, where the locomotive passes a stop signal. The signal has a number plate; it is not an absolute signal. The rules take this into account.
You can see some fans catching the action at 31:55. I've heard that the right of way was littered with empty film boxes.
Pillars of Smoke In The Sky 1957 Original Unedited
92,466 views•Dec 14, 2014
Edwin Carrington Eddy 16mm Films
746 subscribers
These films by E.C. Eddy are copyrighted and protected and may not be downloaded or copied without the express permission of Thomas G. Elmore 2018
= new reply since forum marked as read
