A Pole at Tin Bridge on the Saltbville Branch, Six Decades Ago

[NW Mailing List]

With an old Illinois Central RR Telegrapher out in the West, I have been discussing railroad pole line wire practices, circuit assignments, and how "drop wires" (from the pole) were passed through the station walls and attached to the local equipment.

It strikes me that something I sent him yesterday may be of interest to the N&W Listers. It concerns three photographs taken in 1964 at Tin Bridge on the Saltville Branch. (And my thanks to List-member and Saltville native Capt. Gary Price for ID'ing the location for me several years ago.) That piece of correspondence trails and I will attach the photos to this List post.  (I always put details in my file names, so check there if you want date, direction &c,)

      -- abram burnett
Our Turnips are Bottled-in-Bond

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Here are three photos I took from a caboose on the N&W Saltville Branch in 1964.

Recently I asked the 1957-hire Opr/DS, Tommy Duncan, why there were three wire pairs on the pole line between Glade Spring and Saltville. One pair was obviously for the Traim Dispatcher's Wire and the other was obviously the Msg Wire, but what was the third pair for?

Tommy never batted an eye. He said the third pair was a telegraph line looped off the Main Line WU wire at Glade Spring, down to Saltville and back, because the truly massive Olin Matheson Alkali Works there did a huge telegraph business. Who else would have known a detail like that besides Tommy?  He and one other are the last of the old time Radford Division Operators.

If you want to see all my Glade Spring/Saltville photos taken almost 60 years ago, go here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1B3o5jOxMT_MH2HDMbvFGWMHbiDQF-1Tu?usp=sharing

   -- 73 SW &
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