Radford and Shenandoah Divisions

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org wrote:     On a couple of recent trips to my father-in-law's in Galax, VA, I have stopped to do some railfanning in the Radford/Dublin/Pulaski area, and was wondering if anyone could provide some general information on what was running down there in the 1970's(how many scheduled freights, what kind of traffic, etc.).               
   
  For part of the answer to your question, here's some information on the Radford-Bristol segment:
   
  In the mid-70s out of Bristol, a local (called the Bristol-Max Meadows Shifter) worked weekdays after 7 a.m., except on Thursdays, when the local went to West Jefferson, NC, until service on the Abingdon branch was discontinued in 1977.  I know you asked nothing about Bristol-Radford or the Abingdon Branch, but for anyone else, a couple of good articles on the Abingdon Branch were published in those days before abandonment in Railroad Model Craftsman (in 1975-76?), and in Rail Classics (Fall or Spring 1975?).  And, a good article was published later (Summer months of 1984) in TRAINS. I am not near my magazine collection, so the dates are off the top of my head but in the general time frame. 
    
      The only scheduled time freights in the mid to late 1970s I recall while living in Abingdon, VA, were the BR-2 from Bristol, VA, to Roanoke, leaving Bristol daily around 1 to 4 p.m., or a little later and the RB-3 from Roanoke to Bristol which left Roanoke daily around 4 to 6 p.m., or so, arriving in Bristol before midnight to connect with Southern to Knoxville, TN.  These times were never absolute, of course.  Also, someone may be able to enlighten us both more on something of interest I remember.  Southern sent a majority of its through traffic in those days out of Knoxville "around the horn" (as a Bristol sales office N&W employee told me once) to Asheville, NC, and northward to avoid the Bristol-Roanoke N&W.  He said much of the traffic on these through trains eastward and westward between Roanoke and Knoxville were cars picked-up or set-off between Knoxville and Bristol and between Bristol and Roanoke. 
   
  At times, these two trains (RB-3 and BR-2) worked local switching in addition to setting-off and picking-up cars at Radford, according to my train chasing memories and according to a 1971 or 1972 N&W Freight Train schedules, connections and classifications manual I have that includes information on these two time freights.  A 1981 N&W manual still lists these two trains as BR-2 and RB-3, but I believe their designation was changed a short time later to Southern train symbols, 321 and 322, then 189 and 190 and so forth.  Someone else can supply you with the correct sequence of train symbols after the BR-2 and RB-3 were changed following the merger.  If you can get your hands on these train schedule manuals, that's what you need!  They've got everything about time and local freights all over the N&W system.
   
  Also in the mid-70s between Radford and Bristol, there was a coal train once or twice a week out of Radford late at night and passing Abingdon in the early morning hours westward.  That's about all I can remember when I lived in Abingdon, VA in the mid to late 1970s.
        Mike Jackson   Church Hill, TN












		
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