Freights: No Clearance Cards at West Roanoke or Bluefield?

nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sun Oct 10 21:30:53 EDT 2004


Writeth Senator Bundy:

>> Incidentally, "RD" was an acronym for Radford Division.  <<


Harry et al:

When I asked about the office call "RD," the 1940-ish telegraphers told me 
the following story.  

When Bluefield Yard was extended eastward to its present configuration, in 
the late 1940s, and a tower was built to interlock the east end, an senior 
telegrapher named Stafford bid in the advertisement of the daylight job.  
Stafford's "sine" on the wire had been "RD," the last two letters of his name.  Someone 
in management decided to honor him by naming the place after him.  Ergo, "RD."

Sounds a bit romantic, huh?  You bet.  So I'll give your explanation of "RD" 
as "Radford Division" a fifty-percent handicap.  Perhaps Stafford's bidding in 
the daylight job was just coincidental.

-- abe 
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