Blacksburg Grand Union Terminal Station and End-of-Track

[NW Mailing List]

That mean ole Mister Cochran, the Burgermeister of Newport, Va, is makin' me shuffle through all my negative scans, when I could be doin' something productive like playing Tiddle-de-Winks down at the Senior Citizens' Center.

So I ran across the two attached photos, one of the Blacksburg Grand Union Terminal Station, and the other of the End-of-Track which was a just a few feet beyond said station.  Notice the flowers planted between the rails just ahead of the road crossing !

Date was June 1963. I had just finished high school and had a job at the Johnson-Carper Furniture Factory at North Roanoke, and a friend and I went up to Christiansburg and Blacksburg for a little Saturday outing. As I recall, T. B. (Terry) Wood was the Station Agent at the time. Terry was a 1936-hire telegraph operator. And I think the Agent at Christiansburg was Arnold A. Overstreet, who was a 1917-hire. The station number for Blacksburg was BJ-9, which indicated 9 miles from Blacksburg Branch Junction. Blacksburg never had a Telegraph Call because it never had telegraph... the Blacksburg Branch was built and acquired after the telephone had come into use, and the railroad never ran a Morse circuit from Christiansburg to the end of the branch.

A little memory of Mr. Overstreet... As a teenager, I would often ride No. 15 from Roanoke to Christiansburg, then ride the mixed train over to Blacksburg and back, and then catch No. 46 back to Roanoke. Mr. Overstreet recognized us boys as "regulars." So one day he wanted to treat us and sent us down to a little restaurant near the crossing, to get lunch. He opened his billfold and handed me a $50 bill, and said, "You can bring the change back to me." We had never seen a $50 bill before ! We each had a hot dog and a bottle of soda, and probably returned to him $49 dollars in greenbacks, plus a few coins. I shall never forget his generosity and his trust of us. Good memories...

-- abram burnett
Try Our New Anti-Drone Turnip Elixir Tonic !
.
.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We Happily Promote Canals, Steam Navigation, Railroads, Telegraph,
the American Indian, Motherhood, the Luminiferous Æther
... and Turnips.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ADB_N&W_6-00-1963_Blacksburg Depot w Flowers Planted Between Rails_neg #102058 _ cropped 4x6 300 ppi.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 557603 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20241228/639daabf/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ADB_N&W_6-00-1963_Blacksburg_end of track Blacksburg Br_neg #102059 _ cropped 4x6 300 ppi.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 713613 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20241228/639daabf/attachment-0003.jpg>