Shenandoah Junction questions

[NW Mailing List]

> First, the Shenandoah Valley RR/N&W never crossed the B&O main line at

grade at Shenandoah Junction.  From newspaper archives I have studied
from the 1880 period, the SV crossed the B&O on a trestle. The story is
that B&O was vehemently opposed to SV crossing their railroad at all
because B&O had their own design on building a railroad into the valley.

>From local lore I have heard that SV put the trestle spanning the B&O in

place on a Sunday when B&O could not get a court order to stop them.  On
the north side, SV track approached on high ground, and on the south
side a long wood trestle was the approach to the crossover.  After N&W
bought the SV, the long approach was back filled.  The interchange
tracks into the station were maintained to mainline standards.  Nothing
is interchanged there today, as CSX routes all NS interchange traffic
through Hagerstown.

The Shenandoah Jct station remained open approximately a year or two after
the last N&W passenger service ended May 19, 1962. One B&O passenger
train, a westbound, was still scheduled to stop there. If my memory is
correct, the station was demolished by 1964.  It was the original SV
structure, but the exterior is evidence of the 1909 remodelling.  Check
out photos on the Virginia Tech website.

--Rick Morrison

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> Subject: Shenandoah Junction questions

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> All:

> Do we know both when the long-familiar Shenandoah Junction depot was

> uilt and when it was dismantled? It had that familiar Shenandoah

> alley "cookie-cutter" type look to it, as I remember from the photos

>  have seen.

> Bob:

> N&W's 1919 annual report lists several passenger and freight stations

> that were built or remodeled.  Shenandoah Jct. is mentioned, but it does't

> define the work accomplished.  Maybe you know; maybe you don't, but

> Shenadoah Jct. is NOT on the Roanoke-Hagerstown main line.  A lead veers

> to the east north of MP H-215 and drops down to the B&O level.  The

> distance from MP H-215 to MP H-217 is only 6,716 feet.  There is no MP

> H-216 on the main line, but there is one on the lead to the B&O, so

> apparently the old main line went into Shenandoah Jct. and crossed the

> B&O at grade at one time.                      Harry Bundy

>

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