Pillars of Smoke in the Sky, 1957 N&W Steam on the Blue Ridge

“Pillars of Smoke in the Sky” is a unique film about Norfolk & Western steam operation over the famous Blue Ridge Grade in 1957.

Filmed with the full cooperation of N&W management, producer E. C. Eddy was given access to the line and yards and was allowed to ride aboard the Y class helper and pusher engines as they moved heavy coal trains from Roanoke to the top of the grade. No other film on N&W steam has the on-train perspectives that Mr. Eddy captured on high quality 16mm film.

You’ll be amazed at his work. The original narration is left intact so that all the original sound of this 1957 close-up look at steam, inside and outside the cab, can be experienced now – all these decades later.