Where Did V&T Meet the Southside RR in Lynchburg ?

[NW Mailing List]

Aubrey,

Thank you for this information.  I somehow knew that the Southside and the Virginia & Tennessee did not connect initially in Lynchburg, but I could not locate the source of my knowledge.  Thanks again for confirming what I thought I knew.

Gordon
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2017 9:37 PM
  Subject: Re: Where Did V&T Meet the Southside RR in Lynchburg ?


  I have been through Allen Chambers' mammoth book, Architectural History of Lynchburg, Va., which is considered the quintessential reference for the subject of its title. 

  He states that a station was started for the Virginia & Tennessee in 1849 and completed by November 1852. The railroad operated its first train as far as Forest, Va. in 1852 as well. Chambers describes the station as being on the southeast side of Ninth Street, at the foot of the hill. Ninth Street still exists and crosses the site of the James River & Kanawha Canal on the same bridge as was used in 1852. This means that the V&T station was about where the parking lot is for Depot Grill Restaurant today, which  has its own railroad history.

  Continuing from Chambers's book, the V&T depot was replaced in 1875 by a Union Station on the northwest side of Blackwater Creek, about 2/10's of a mile to the west. This new station would serve the Virginian Midland Railroad (nee Orange & Alexandria) as well. 

  In 1890 the magnification Union Station was built on the site of the V&T shops and roundhouse.  In addition to N&W, passenger trains of Chesapeake & Ohio, Southern Railway and the street cars of Lynchburg Traction & Light Company called there. After World War II, N&W massacred the structure in an effort to modernize it. As a little child, I remember going there with my parents for the grand reopening and was amazed by one feature, ........ the mosaic tile floor in the waiting room. 

  I am attaching a post 1890 post card view of the Union Station and a 1959 view of the modernized station.

  About the Southside Railroad (nee Petersburg & Lynchburg),  Chambers states that on March 21, 1853, "title was obtained for Percival's Island in the James River for a yard and depot, and a temporary depot was soon erected. The first train arrived Nov. 2, 1854...although V&T and Southside did not connect."

  Aubrey Wiley
  "Our stories give our lives meaning." Rudyard Kipling, 1928

  Moderator:
  http://www.nwhs.org/mailinglist/2017/20170701.Lynchburg%20Union%20Station%20Aubrey%20Wiley%20Collection.JPG
  http://www.nwhs.org/mailinglist/2017/20170701.LynchburgUnionStation1959AWileycollection0001.jpg


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