Railway Express and N&W Shenandoah Division

[NW Mailing List]

Saturday
Monday, September 14, 2009 9:14 AM
From: "rnnelson1 at verizon.net" <rnnelson1 at verizon.net>
To: f_scheer at yahoo.com

Frank:

Thanks so much for the real nice time on Saturday. 

It was really something to see the station at Boyce, which I never would have thought it to be that big. 

I was thinking about it all the way home and it struck me that Boyce was just about as close as the N&W got to Winchester . In Winchester there was a relatively large Railway Express facility since people shopped by catalogue (Sears, Montgomery Ward etc) and that’s the way they received their merchandise. 

In fact, there was an extra Express car from Washington on the B&O train on Mondays. The B&O train from Brunswick to Strasburg ran daily except Sunday with a Mail, Baggage Express car from Washington. Since there was quite a lot of express held in Washington for distribution in Winchester which had arrived on Saturday and Sunday, the extra Express car was added out of Washington on Mondays. The car would come via Train 11 Wasington to Brunswick and then Train 55 Brunswick to Strasburg or in the case of the extra Express car on Mondays, just to Winchesrter ( it was on the rear and was just cut off).  The cars would return the same day on Train 54 to Brunwick and then Train 32 (Mail and Express train) to Washington.

So if an item was coming via the N&W route to Winchester or another town in the area , my guess is that it would be put off at Boyce and trucked to Winchester for distribution there. Also a good chance that the consignee could also pick it up at Boyce.

Passengers to/from Winchester wanting to use the N&W would no doubt use Boyce. So if I'm right, Boyce was in effect the N&W station for Winchester.  

Just a thought as to why the large REA portion and maybe another reason as to why the size of the whole station itself.

Ric


September 14, 2009

Hello, Ric:

I appreciate the thank you.  I'm pleased that you and others attended and enjoyed the food as well as the evening programs.

While it would be flattering to think that Railway Express from Winchester might have been trucked to Boyce, my belief is that this was unlikely.  Berryville is directly east along Virginia Route 7.  It was a day and night train order office.  If there were such transfers, I think that is the more likely location.

If there were sufficient quantities of express for destinations along the N&W, I'm guessing that it was all dispatched to Washington.  The Washington REA building would have consolidated shipments to make up a sealed REA car from Washingto to Roanoke.  At both locations, cars could be swtiched in and out of the trains within alotted dwell time.

If Boyce's space was fully utilized in its early years after 1913, it's more likely that there were express and LCL freight shipments for Boyce and Millwood plus farms in the immediately surroundng area.

Good morning,

Frank