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The Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad rolled through Nelson Countycarrying passengers and lumber for about 65 years. Now, more about 30 years after it closed, people will be able tolearn about the railroad and hear stories from the people who knewit best at an educational program Sunday, June 17, at 2 p.m. Theevent, co-sponsored by the Nelson County Historical Society and theMassies Mill Ruritan Club, will feature a presentation from EdFielding, a retired Brookville High School teacher and railroadenthusiast. The event also will feature former employees sharingtheir experiences, and artifacts will be on view. "Amherst and Nelson County people need to know what was onceactive right in their area, and understand what has been lost andwhy," said Fielding, a member of the Blue Ridge chapter ofthe National Railway Historical Society and the event"s keynote speaker. Fielding first rode the railroad in 1965 and has collected materialconcerning it since then. He is also a contributing member of theNew York, Susquehanna and Western Historical Society and theNorfolk Southern Railway Company Historical Society. The 120-plus slide program shows the operations and environment ofthe railroad. Fielding will discuss its history and how it wasVirginia"s last railroad operating steam locomotives.Fielding and two other members of the Blue Ridge chapter of theNational Railway Historical Society created the program 10 yearsago. Since then they have continuously added to it. The Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad opened in 1915 as a way to haulchestnut timber out of Piney River to local mills. The line ranfrom the Tye River Depot to Massies Mill. The chestnut runs stoppedduring World War I and a blight wiped out most of the chestnuttrees shortly after. Later the line began transporting passengers and working forseveral quarries where titanium dioxide and aplite were mined. Someof the tracks were destroyed during Hurricane Camille and AmericanCyanamid, a frequent user of the line, closed in 1970. The railroadstopped running in the early 1980s. The event will be held at the Massies Mill Ruritan Club building,located on Virginia 151 in Roseland. It is expected to last aroundan hour and a half but could go longer depending on how manystories are shared from the audience. It is free to members of theMassies Mill Ruritan Club and the Nelson County Historical Society.There is a $5 fee for everyone else. The idea for the event came about after several members of theNelson County Historical Society attended a presentation given byFielding on the Blue Ridge Railroad last spring, said DickWhitehead, the historical society"s special eventcoordinator. "Further discussion among the members of the HistoricalSociety Board and with Ed led to agreement that Ed"s talkwould be especially well received in the Piney River communitywhere the Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad was based," Whiteheadsaid. The board members also decided the presentation would be enhancedby displays from several local collections of Blue Ridge Railroaditems. Some of the items are lanterns, locks, calendars and localpaintings. Members of the co-sponsoring organizations collaborated and reachedout to past Blue Ridge Railroad employees and families of pastemployees inviting them to the event. "Many of them expressed an interest in attending such anevent to share stories and memories," Whitehead said. Whitehead said he hoped people would come out for it. "What better way for members of the Piney River andsurrounding Nelson and Amherst communities to celebrateFather"s Day than to bring their fathers to this specialFather"s Day program?" Whitehead said. "They willsee images and hear stories about the life and work of theirfathers, friends, uncles and grandfathers, and learn how thislittle engine of a railroad came into being, changed over time andsurvived in a small rural area of Central Virginia for more thanhalf a century.". I am an expert from seamlesssteel-pipe.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Cold Drawn Seamless Tube , China Bright Steel Bar, Seamless Steel Pipe,and more.
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