Blacksburg Grand Union Terminal Station and End-of-Track

[NW Mailing List]

Is that a covered hopper just barely visible in the gap between the NYC box
car and the N&W hopper?

On Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 10:00 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> What, said eatery didn't serve turnips?
>
> Ed Bell
> ebell56 at fuse.net
>
> Sent via the Samsung Galaxy A15 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Date: 12/28/24 5:39 PM (GMT-05:00)
> To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Cc: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Subject: Blacksburg Grand Union Terminal Station and End-of-Track
>
> 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.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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