Norfolk Southern Roanoke facility tour

Another tour I had in Roanoke Virginia was of the Norfolk Southern yard and shops.  We started off in the yard tower overlooking the hump yard.

Above is the view of the humping operation from the tower.  The freight cars in the foreground were in-house cars.  I had thought hump yards were being phased out but that is not the case.  It is apparently still one of the fastest means of sorting cars.

Across the tracks from the tower was their car repair shop where they can repair almost any damage or problem if the car is worth repairing.  They still use cabooses there in certain situations though the one in the photo is in for repair - or not depending on how cost effective that would be.

An old wrecking crane on site.

A hurting hopper car awaiting fixing.

The yard tower from the car repair shop.  You can see a bunch of our tour group out on the platform.

NS did a real nice job on our tour and it was interesting and informative.