The former Virginian west of Roanoke has operated as a predominantly eastbound railroad for decades now, but there have been exceptions over the years. In this scene from early 1998 we find a pair of westbound empty hopper trains tied down at the south yard. On a normal day - then and now - hopper trains and anything else westbound would pass through Roanoke across town on the N&W side. But on this day westbound traffic was running through Roanoke on the former Virginian - probably because of a derailment or MofW project somewhere on the N&W. Depending on the circumstances, these trains might have crossed back over to the N&W just west of Roanoke or may have run the Whitethorne District (ex-VGN) all the way.
