Agent Glade Spring: W.E. Belcher

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

No sir, I am not sure what happened to him, but I remember this:
   
  He was always courteous and answered any questions I had when I stopped by the Glade station when I lived in Abingdon (1975-79) before the station was closed.  The Bristol newspaper (Herald-Courier) had a good article on 10 November 1977 about the pending close of the Glade Spring office and his re-location or retirement options.  Looking at the article this morning that I have in one of my scrapbooks on the N&W, I notice the writer Robert Pilk included the information that the station was to be closed in December 1977, but I had thought it was still open in 1978, although I am not sure about this.  
   
  There was a rough winter in southwest Virginia in 1978, I believe, with snow every other day or so, and I recall stopping by the office in January and February of 1978.  However, as I think further on this, it may have been 1977 as the rough winter months when I stopped by to see him on Fridays when I usually took off work to chase the trains (because I could see the local and the two time freights, BR2 and RB-3, three trains in one day!).  I know after Abingdon and Glade closed, I had to rely on the Marion agent for information, and of those three, Mr. Belcher was the most helpful of the agents at Abingdon, Glade, and Marion in those days. 
   
  Finally, I remember one Friday in particular I got a late start because my youngest son had a late-morning dental appointment, so I didn't know anything about the local.  When I asked, he said it went to Marion, but he called the Whitethorne dispatcher and found out. It was returning from a drop-off at 7 Mile Ford, and we waited there till it passed Glade in about fifteen minutes.  He did things like that for me.
   
  Mike Jackson

nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org wrote:
      Mike, do you know what ever "became of" Cotton Belcher?
   
  -- abram burnett

   
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