 |
|
|
UER Store
|
|
sweet UER decals:
|
|
|
 seicer
     
Location: New York
Gender: Male
 |  |  | Trip to the coalfields of West Virginia!
< on 10/23/2005 2:22 AM >
|  | | | I finally made it to southwest West Virginia with an agenda that would have lasted all day. I only made it to two locations on the list, but made a very unexpected discovery. Read on!
Left around 11:30 AM and headed down US 52 in West Virginia. Part of this is to revisit several King Coal/Tulsia Highway projects north of Williamson and to see if the coal processing plant remains existed between Crum and Kermit. Unfortunately, the processing plant was demolished THIS YEAR (it was huge), but the hopper loader and the offices remain. A one-hour exploration max. there, but there are plenty of climbing areas if you like that sort of stuff.
Showed my father around Williamson and the huge N&S railyards and roundhouse (which was built by the N&W). Is the largest coal railyards in the U.S.
At Cinderela, the huge coal processing plant that was built in the 1950's and was quite huge is now gone. The conveyor has been cut in half over US 52 --
http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=17&X=1949&Y=20847&W=2&qs=%7cwilliamson%7c%7c
Just up the road, this part of it still exists but is being used as a scrap yard. http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=17&X=1953&Y=20851&W=2&qs=%7cwilliamson%7c%7c
--
Took WV 65 from US 52 to Matewan, famous for the Matewan floods and its historic downtown which was put on the National Historic Register in 1997. Has a nice trolley bus and a brand new 'historic' depot built by Massey Energy in 2001. There is a massive floodwall all around the town, built after the large 1984 flood.
--
Next stop was a point north of Gilbert on WV 80 (name withheld, called location two). The rail line from Gilbert to Man was abandoned around ~2001 when the coal processing plant at location two was closed due to dwindling coal at its mines in ~1997. The spur to the processing plant at location two has been abandoned since the same time. A large slurry pond is also on top of a hill. The coal processing plant at location two is HUGE and comprises of about 6 main structures and a small office. The main building is about seven stories tall with conveyors branching off every which way. All doors are chained shut, but there is one very easy entrance. Transformers are on a newer concrete pad awaiting scrap or reuse.
The office had an exterior light on, but nothing more. A truck to the side looked to not be abandoned (versus everything else that was). I drove on up the road and followed the abandoned rail line but turned around and saw that there were two small pickups at the office. I don't know for what reason but with the coal processing plant and mines closed.
--
I headed further north along a state route and saw a large brick smokestack. Curious to what it was, I drove up to it and assumed it was a school. The building's design dates to the late-1950's or 1960's and came accompanied with the usual green panels that were peeling of their lead paint, and purple tinted windows. Yes, purple. What striked me as odd, was that the electricity was buzzing. Lights on the exterior were on to an extent, and some interior lights were still going strong. I thought that someone was there, so I aimed for the front of the hospital where I saw it was closed! It had shut down due to funding problems only a few years ago and is a sight for sore eyes today. The only "modern" component is the main emergency entrance, which was built in the very late-1990's.
Going into this place is easy. A mobile medical unit attached to the building via a jetway was interesting. The 'jetway' (black connecting piece like an accordian) was active and still sucking like a vacuum. Getting inside was errie. All silent and very scary actually.
I peered through some windows and got some photos from the exterior. It's like something out of fucking Doom or Resident Evil. The hallways are still lit to a certain extent. Only certain lights are activated, and those that are on flicker at random intervals, giving it a very fucking freaky feeling. The hallways are clean, sans the random object thrown into the hallway. Not much peeling wallpaper or rotten ceiling tiles to speak of.
There is a hotel like building next to the hospital. It was a hospitality house for the guests, and where some employees lived. It too, is abandoned.
--
I got back on the state highway and saw an impressive road construction project on WV 10. A very windy and dangerous two-lane highway is being realigned to a four-lane highway. Very impressive highwalls (rock cuts) are abound, as the highway is being blasted into the mountains, and a viaduct/bridge over a river with a portion hugging the mountain is complete but the highway does not go anywhere as the blasting work has not commenced immediately after the span.
Abandoned |
|
|
|
All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire.
To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site:
UER CONTACT
View Terms of Service |
View Privacy Policy |
Server colocation provided by Beanfield
This page was generated for you in 93 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 739866935 pages have been generated.
|
|
