Me and my family are headed up north to Marion, Va to meet friends on Friday, and are staying at the trackside hotel there. We usually stop in town to fill up our truck on trips to WV, and have crossed over the NS line through town many times. So that got me wondering, does anyone know how busy is the line, and what kind of trains I should expect?
From prior post: Me and my family are headed up north to Marion, Va to meet friends on Friday, and are staying at the trackside hotel there. We usually stop in town to fill up our truck on trips to WV, and have crossed over the NS line through town many times. So that got me wondering, does anyone know how busy is the line, and what kind of trains I should expect?
This line is probably getting more traffic than it did pre N&W/Southern Rwy merger 12 yrs ago. According to a brief note I read in TRAINS about a year ago, mgmt likes the line because it is a relatively shallow way to cross the Appalachians on the way north. You can expect to see intermodal among the stuff, probably some coal, I don’t know how manifest has held up.
In its passenger-train heyday, as late as 1966, this was the old “Pelican” line that ran Washington, D.C. - Lynchburg - Bristol - Birgmingham with through trains to Memphis and New Orleans. Note that pre-merger the line was controlled by Southern from D.C. to Lynchburg and then again Bristol, VA/TN and on to the south; the N&W operated the L’burg to Bristol segment.
Do they still have the cute mock-Tudor depot set on a curve? Is it being put to good use? Last time I had intimate dealings with the depot was the Saturday before Amtrak took over; I rode the last stub of a train from Glade Spring, VA and got off at Marion – where about 30 Cub and Boy Scouts got on! - al
Al, thanks for the info. The depot is still there, but is currently being used as an office, and there are still N&W CPLs there as well.