A hostler fills the tank of a Y6 at Shaffers Crossing engine terminal.

Norfolk and Western freight power is well represented at Shaffers Crossing. Class A 1221 faces Y6b 2173 while EMD GP9 721 sits nearby.

Class A 1210 passes between position light signals with a westbound freight downgrade to Roanoke.

Class A 1221 is steaming nicely as it passes beneath the bridge at Blue Ridge with a westbound empty hopper train.

Famous class A 1218 drifts westbound down the Blue Ridge grade with a merchandise train that will soon be in Roanoke.

N&W Y6b 2179 is running light eastbound early in the morning at Blue Ridge.

The sunlight was dramatic and the hills very lush as Y6a 2158 pushes the afternoon freight headed by two other Y6 locomotives.

This train was at the end of my August 1958 visit to Roanoke. It had rained quite hard that afternoon but then the sun broke through dramatically. Two Y6s pull on an eastbound freight and the lead... (more)

Y6a 2167 pushes hard on the wood-sheathed caboose of a coal drag pulled by a single Y6, number 2152.

A bit of hazy sunlight illuminates Y6a 2157 pushing a steel caboose on the freight led by class A 1217.

Class A 1217 pulls upgrade with an eastbound merchandise train, probably no. 84, near the small overpass at Blue Ridge.

Y6 2150 on the local freight from Roanoke steams under the small road bridge near the summit of the Blue Ridge grade.

An eastbound coal drag behind Y6 2129 and class A 1216 pull upgrade near the summit of the Blue Ridge grade. I met several other railfans on this trip and one of them must have been Jerry Carson ... (more)

Y6b 2179 is one of the newer engines and is on pusher duty this morning. The engine pushes a coal drag pulled by Y6 2129 and class A 1216. The level of water in the tender is evident in the August... (more)

The late afternoon light illuminates the details of Y6a 2167 as it awaits another eastbound freight to push up the Blue Ridge grade.