Land Ownership (was Re: Lofton Wye again)

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

I recall reading in the history of the Chesapeake Western that when the 
B&O Valley Line was abandoned an enterprising
Roanoke Realtor bought the right of way and sold it back to the prior 
owners or their successors (Who often didn't know they didn't own it).

Jeff Cornelius
Two Blocks from the N&W Valley Line

-----Original Message-----
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sent: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 8:47 AM
Subject: Land Ownership (was Re: Lofton Wye again)

  At 8:00 AM -0500 10/29/06, Harry wrote:

>John at Buford , Ga.

>Does NS still own the land inside the wye at Lofton  ?  That's an 

interesting

>question.  As a rule of thumb, if the railroad buys the property, they 

retain

>ownership.  But back in the 19th century, many landowners contributed 

land

>as an enticement for the railroad to build.  In those cases, if the 

railroad

>abandons, then the land reverts to the property owner.


By right, the land where the Shawsville station sat should have 
reverted to the
owners.  When the abandoned-by-the-N&W station was burned by vandals in 
the late
'70s, I was a reporter with the Radford News Journal.  Someone put me 
on to the
original deed for the land, recorded in the Montgomery County 
courthouse.  I did
some digging, called a couple of people in Shawsville and ended up 
talking to
Madison Marye (a now-retired state senator, a great storyteller and 
old-school
politician).  He had a family connection to the families that 
originally put up
the land for a station to serve the resort at Alleghany Springs.  
Madison was
glad to hear he had part ownership of two acres of land in downtown 
Shawsville,
"that's almost as good as owning 10 acres in downtown Dallas" was close 
to what
he said.  He went on to point out that after 100 years, it would not be 
worth
the time or expense to track down all the descendants and heirs to sign 
away
their interest so a clear title to the land could be established.  So 
while a
legal document may call for property reversion, it usually isn't an 
issue unless
it is a major line abandonment, such as when NS "donated" to the 
Commonwealth
the North Carolina Branch for what is now the New River Trail.  It was 
a long
time before details were worked on over one section, which adjacent 
landowners
claimed to be theirs when the railroad ceased rail operations on the 
line.

The deed (a work in progress, there is a diagram I need to scan and I 
need to
find my news story in my old clips) can be read at 
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bharper/nwrwy/shawsville_deed.html

Bruce in Blacksburg
--
Bruce in Blacksburg         === In the heart of N&W territory. ===

Bruce B. Harper                              (540)231-4360
University Relations/Web Communications  bharper at vt.edu
Virginia Tech        Blacksburg, Virginia  26060
See N&W WWW Page at http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bharper/nwrwy/
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