"Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

[NW Mailing List]

Skip, 

 

I think there may have been be a mix-up below in either the cited location
or identification of the passenger train getting left in the dust in your
original anecdote below.  Based on Rev. Jim's reply, I gather he inferred
the subject location was near Abilene on the Farmville Belt Line.  Could you
provide clarification?

 

Algren (on the VGN) is in Chesapeake, near the Suffolk city line, at the
northern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp.  The N&W mainline lies parallel,
but at least a mile farther south, passing from Yadkin (in Chesapeake) at
the east end of the swamp, through Juniper deep in the swamp, to Suffolk at
the west end of the swamp.  Juniper is where the J611 NS employee's
excursion train sadly jumped the rails in May '85.

 

At Algren, the VGN crossed the SAL at a shallow angle.  The Virginian and
the Seaboard Air Line rights of way are directly side-by-side each other
(and adjacent to highway US 13/58/460) from Bower's Hill, about 1 mile east
of Algren,  all the way to downtown Suffolk.  The VGN right of way lies
north of the SAL west of Algren and south of the SAL to the east.  East of
Bower's Hill, the VGN forms the southern border between the cities of
Portsmouth and Chesapeake, and the SAL line diverges northward into
Portsmouth.  The rails were pulled up from the old Virginian right of way
some years back (80's or 90's, maybe?), but the right of way is still
intact.  On N. Main St. in downtown Suffolk, the VGN and SAL shared a
passenger depot.  This depot in recent years has been nicely restored and is
open as a museum that is well worth a visit.  The Seaboard line is still
active as CSX's link to Southside Hampton Roads.

 

Interestingly, a recent proposal for bringing high speed passenger rail
service to Norfolk could revive this section of the old VGN.  Talks of
running a train from a new station in downtown Norfolk by Harbor Park (i.e.,
former site of Union Station, by Bridge 5) to Richmond include stops -- and
new stations -- in Bower's Hill and Petersburg.  Since the only current rail
route from downtown Norfolk to Bowers Hill involves looping around the
Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line over to the SAL track in Portsmouth, I wonder
if the powers that be are considering restoring the VGN line at least as far
as Bowers' Hill.   From Suffolk, the route would follow the N&W to
Petersburg, and the ACL from Petersburg to Richmond.  .Anyone up for a ride
on "The Cannonball" (21st century edition)?  

 

David Rice

Chesapeake, VA

 


________________________________ 
What was the Powhatan Arrow doing there? It ran on the old main line through
Farmville.    Jim Nichols 
) 

I The Jewel from the Past is like one in Louis Newton's Watham Cresent Model
1892, 21-jewel given to him by his grandfather, James A. Newton, Railway
Postal Clerk is from July 1, 2004: "Keith Sowder, VGN clerk said that for a
while he came home to Roanoke from Sewells Point every weekend and would
ride VGN trains both days. Several times near Algreen, where the N&W and VGN
were almost side by side and the track is pretty straight, the VGN 900s
pulling the crack Ford Train #72 would walk away from the N&W Powhatan
Arrow. 



Skip Salmon 

__._,_.___ 

 

 

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