Answers for Abram -- Divisions and Lynchburg

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On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 10:25 AM,
Charlie
 wrote:

Abram, thanks for the question causing Bruce to do this interesting
> research. Very interesting for me being from Radford (Central or Central
> Depot) and now living in Lynchburg.
> And Bruce, can I share this info with a Lynchburg history Facebook group?
>

It was actually an earlier question/comment from Abram that sent me down
this path -- the "no confidence" vote in Sands. There is a boatload of
leatherbound minute books, stockholder lists, accounting ledgers, etc. at
GOB East. This was my second foray into that area to try to find the
minutes from that time, but so far no success. But I did run across the
files that included the re-divisioning info. Since that is a key piece of
the railroad history, I am happy to share anything and everything relating
to that project -- after all, the archives are there to be used.

Related to that, my long-term (and still going) project has been to index
L.E. Johnson's correspondence files. Step one was to enter the index card
"database" that was created to track the subjects and the file number
associated with them. I had used this system when the records were in the
Virginia Tech library and found a wealth of information. The problem is
that there are a couple of iterations of cards and only half of them are in
the archives (that we know of). The other problem is that the card system
doesn't match up with the early years (1904 mainly) of the files. To fix
that, I have been going through each Holinger box of files and entering the
file number and subject of the contents. That is going well and I've found
material for a couple of Arrow articles (that I need to actually write).
There is a lot of information in those files and I will pass on that if
anyone wants to write a history of the joint station in Winston-Salem,
there are three overstuffed files with correspondence, reports, drawings,
and all sorts of other information that would make such a project fairly
easy.

If I get an OK from the powers-that-be, I will share a link with those who
ask to a front-end page to the database that I'm entering this information
into, which can be searched by subject. On one level it will give an idea
of what was happening in that time period based on the files that were set
up. On another level, it provides access to another source of information
for researchers. My hesitation right now is that there is no mechanism set
up to locate and share what someone might want from these files. When I
have run across tidbits of info, I have either used my hand scanner or
phone to copy the pages for later processing (and eventual sharing). I
don't want to promise something that will add a burden to those who show up
for archive work sessions (especially the handful who make it to GOB East
each month), nor is there a way to easily scan the files (the large-format
scanner is already in use pretty much each work day scanning drawings into
the system). There also needs to be a way to catalog the information if it
is scanned, if there is a desire to maintain what is captured beyond
sharing with someone who requested it. Sorry to dump this on the officers
this way (and if the decision is to talk about it later, its OK with me).

Bruce in Blacksburg
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