VIRGINIAN RAILWAY Speed Limit Sign

Virginian had signs informing speed restrictions at many locations, but most were found at tight curves. These orange/yellow signs saying a speed limit were placed 200 yards in advance of the restricted speed area where another sign with the actual "SLOW" sign was placed. On the far side of the restricted speed area, another sign was placed, green sign with white lettering, "RESUME SPEED." This side of the speed limit sign is restored while the reverse side is left untouched and the lettering is in very poor condition. Rather than destroy what little remained on both sides of the sign, I chose to restore one side.

VIRGINIAN Steam Locomotive Firebricks

Arranged in a row in our fern garden, near the collection of other railroad relics, are four large boiler fire bricks discarded by the Virginian Railway shop force in Victoria, Virginia in 1959. The writing cast into it reads, "American Arch Security Company." Future research may provide more information. They are the gifts of Greg Elam and Edwin Massie, both of Victoria, who told me they were intended for the railroad's 500 (BA class) or 900 ( AG class) locomotives, when needed.

C&O Fire Hydrant

Gladstone, Virginia was an important crew change point on the C&O's James River subdivision until about 1985. In its hey-day, Gladstone had a yard, roundhouse with a turntable, steam engine service facilities, car repair area, coal and water facilities for steam locomotives and a large wood, two story station. A YMCA was there for the train crews to have their rest. In the 21st century, all that remains are the two story station and part of the yard. All through the railroad yard there were railroad installed and maintained fire hydrants. In the spring of 2010, I was given the fire plug that was behind the roundhouse.

This fire hydrant was manufactured by Eddy Valve Company in the early 20th century and is a short barrel, dry barrel type. It has two 2-1/2" outlets which would serve 250 gallons of water a minute, each. The color of the bonnet tells that it sat on a 12" main water line which could furnish 1,000 gallons per minute. The railroads huge water tank was close, only about 50 yards away, so that explains the ample water flow available. This information was provided by Capt. John Spinner of the Lynchburg Fire department.

C&O SIgn for Pearch, Virginia

Pearch was located on the James River subdivision of the C&O Ry at milepost 161.3, 13 miles west of Lynchburg, Virginia. In the mid 1970's a C&O coal train derailed at PEARCH, dislodging this sign. The railroad cleanup crew discarded it, and gave it to me. It sits atop its original 6/6 wood post just a few yards from the C&O signal.

Pearch was originally called Pedlar's but it was changed to Pearch in the early years of the 20th century. The original name probably came from the fact of the confluence of the James and Pedlar rivers being just to the east. In its hey-day, apples and timber were shipped as well as grain mill products. In addition to the mill there was also a combination store, agent's office and telegraph office, all in one structure. In addition to the C&O railroad, Pearch was connected to the outside world by a gravel road to the east to Holmcomb Rock, running close beside the C&O right of way. From the late 1800's into the early 1900's, a cable ferry crossed the James River to Amherst County. The lumber probably was produced on the Bedford County side of the river and the grain and apples came from across the river in Amherst County.

N&W Switch Point for Yard Crews

Until the 1970's, N&W had a very active yard on an island in the James River at Lynchburg and just beyond the west end of the island were connections with Southern and C&O railroads. This piece of rail, about 70 pounds per yard I estimate, was placed vertical along one of the through tracks so that an engineer would know his train of a certain amount of cars had cleared a point.

Atlantic & Danville Railroad Switchstand

Eventually reaching 205 miles between Norfolk and Danville, Virginia, the Atlantic & Danville Railroad was started in 1883 and completed in 1890. It was owned by British investors. Its freight and passenger traffic was never overwhelming to say the least and in 1899, Southern Railway leased it for fifty years. It operated independently between 1949 and 1962 when N&W bought the operation and changed its name to Norfolk, Franklin & Danville Railroad. However, the NF&D faded into the Norfolk Southern fold all together 1n 1983. Mile by mile, unprofitable track was abandoned and removed until by the end of 2008, less than 90 miles of the original line remained. Acquired from the abandoned right of way of the old Atlantic & Danville Railroad near milepost 95, this early 1900's switchstand was saved from a scrap heap's fate. As with the other RAILROAD SCULPTURE GARDEN pieces, help was gratefully accepted from Greg Elam and Jack Hammack. It is pictured 7 days after being obtained, repaired, cleaned and installed on two crossties in our Relic Garden. Beside it is a switch broom, used to clear snow from between switch points in the bad winter weather. This particular switch broom has a story of its own, coming from the old D&RGW west of Denver. The brooms used to keep switches clear of snow were made of a very stiff and heavy broom material.

Chesapeake & Ohio - Chessie System dwarf signal

CSX carried out another huge signal replacement project in May 2010 along the James River Subdivision. The result was that on Monday, May 3rd, this Safetran model CLS 10-D dwarf signal was pulled from the right of way much like a dentist removes a tooth! I am told it was installed circa 1978. I was able to obtain it from CSX for scrap and within three weeks, it was cleaned, repaired of damage caused when it was extracted, restored, rewired and made operational. It was mounted on a concrete pad as it was when in use when protecting westbound trains from the passing siding at the west end of Alpine, milepost 185.7. For this still picture, it is showing a "Slow Approach" indication in our Relic Garden.

Chesapeake & Ohio Color Light Signal

This old C&O signal was discarded in a massive CSX signal modernization program in West Virginia. The signal, manufactured by the Union Switch & Signal Company (US&S), model R-2, and put in service by the C&O in 1947, was originally installed on the mainline in West Virginia. I have been guided through the restoration and installation by friends Matt Crouch, Mike Mullins and Scott Greathouse who are knowledgeable of C&O signal practices. Charlie Long is a long time friend whose company is always enjoyed and treasured. Charlie eagerly supports this signal restoration project with hard work. Felix Guavara, our grandson, is a joy to be around and is a hard worker. He has helped me avoid several mistakes. Charlotte was always ready to help when I got myself into a corner. Rick Johnson, Jr. did the impossible in obtaining a ladder platform and milepost number sign for me. It has been restored and made operational to represent the signal for westbound trains at Gobbler's Knob, milepost 172.5 on the James River subdivision.

N&W Phone Box

The steel Norfolk & Western phone box was probably used by the railroad at the north end of the passing track at Sargents, Ohio in the railroad's Columbus, Ohio district of the Scioto Division. I was told the phone box was used on the Portsmouth - Columbus Ohio line and I believe it came from the Sargents location because the box has the number "20" on each side and that would be about the correct milepost for Sargents. The milepost numbers start at Portsmouth and go to Columbus, mp 98.20. Inside the door, there is a card holder for the ring codes of frequently used locations. There was no card in it when I received it but some names were faintly visible from being penciled on the sliver paint: Lucasville, Waverly, Renick and Chllicothe. The phone had two different lines, one for the dispatcher and one called a "message line" for local area conversations of company matters of course. A crank ringer was used to call the desired location. For example, Lucasville was one short, one long and one short. Based on the last battery inspection date of Dec. 12, 1985 on a tag inside, it must have been taken out of service about 1986. It is pictured, above left, with restoration and installation in our relic garden compete. On the left top of the wood post is an insulator which secured the communication wire and the phone box door is locked with a vintage brass N&W lock. * The small above ground junction box seen to the right of the phone box has a build date stamped inside of 1902 and it came from the old C&O near Lewis Tunnel, Virginia. The vintage picture above and right shows the crew of N&W train west bound extra 2101 at a phone box at Swords Creek about 51 miles west of Bluefield, WV on the Clinch Valley line.

Railroad Crossing Lights and Bell

The railroad crossing sign is a cobbled collection of four parts from three Virginia railroads from locations hundreds of miles apart. The grade crossing lights were found in an antique shop in Fairfield, Va. in December 2006 for a very small fraction of the usual going price. The unit was retired from use at a grade crossing near Midvale, milepost 174 on Norfolk & Western's Shenandoah line. It operates by an alternating, flashing timer.
The N&W crossing bell, manufactured by Western Railroad Supply Company, was provided by friend Rick Rader in May 2009. It had been retired from use on the former N&W's Radford Division. The bell and lights are wired through a timer so that they are on for several seconds and then off for a few minutes.
The circa 1930 crossing sign ("crossbuck") with glass beaded letters was found in an antique store in southeastern Virginia in October 2008. It was stabilized and restored to appear in its old condition. In other words, it was cleaned, sanded, primed, repainted and restored to look old again. It was manufactured by General Railway Supply Company for the Virginian Railway. The location of its use is uncertain, but it probably was used around Jarratt, Virginia, about milepost 75.
The glass beaded track number sign was a gift from friend Garland Harper in February 2009. It had been used at a crossing at Barboursville, Virginia on the Washington Division on the Southern Railway's double track right of way, but it was discarded by the railroad many years earlier.

C&O Phone Box

Until as recent as the 1970's, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway communicated along the James River Subdivision by means of lineside, hand crank telephones housed in wood boxes! That is when I was given this phone box which was used at the west end of Gladstone Yard. Radio communication to locomotives and crews had been in the future for the C&O. Today the phone box is beside the Abert Watchman's Shanty and an oak platform which had been made for railroad workers to stand on when using it. Inside is a 1950's vintage C&O Stromberg - Carlson hand crank phone. Stewart Shannon, a retired communications man on C&O, Chessie and CSX describes how these lineside phones were used: "The crank phones did not have a plug box; there was only a 'message line' available for the train crews (conductors) to use, at least in Virginia and West Virginia where I worked. They would crank a ring code to reach the desired or nearest station operator who in turn would relay a message to the dispatcher and his reply back to the train conductor. Even train orders were copied and relayed this way! It was an involved process!"

Abert Gets the Correct Stove and a Visitor

For the first time in scores of years, in May 2010, the C&O Watchbox from Abert has a coal stove, the correct one! Thanks for Tom Clay, a Burnside number Five was obtained. I cleaned, sanded off rust, repairied cracks and gave it a coat of "Stove Blackening." Correct 5" stove pipe will carry the smoke out the smoke jack on the roof, when it is fired. When the structure was built in 1942, the railroad attached steel plates to the corner walls and floor to protect the wood and also to reflect the heat.

Bobby and Judy Wade came for their first visit. Bobby grew up along the C&O at Abert; his father and grandfather worked in this actual C&O Watch Box! Bobby said he was taken back many years to his youth as he sat inside the small structure and recalled the furnishings. The coal stove was the same as when he played there as a youngster but missing now are a few wood boxes that were nested out of the way when not arranged together making a cot of sorts. The placement of the phone box was correct, he said, but a small wooden coal bunker was beside the shanty at its original location. Two lanterns are in Abert as they were when it was in operation, he noticed; one with a clear globe for illumination and another with a red globe to stop an approaching train in case of an emergency. Bobby said the Watch Boxes were placed five to six miles apart and that the watchmen walked both east and west to inspect the track and to meet the neighboring watchmen. The watchman to the east came from Reusens while the watchman from the west came from Holcomb Rock. The railroad had three houses for sectionmen at Abert, two close to the tracks and a third up a hallow. Other buildings at Abert included a store with a post office and a few private homes and farms at Abert. Abert was at the west end of a passing track and a spur track, or house track, was on the south side of the tracks. There was not a station but passengers could wait for one of the four passenger trains in a three sided shelter, which was common along the C&O at such rural locations. Bobby described how timber was cut on the hills behind the community and a sawmill made the lumber, which was shipped out on the C&O. An apple orchard also shipped from Abert. He remembers watching trains of troop cars in World War II passing slowly and soldiers pushing off cases of canned vegetables and processed meat for them.

VIRGINIAN RAILWAY Sheffield Motor Car circa 1921

The Fairbanks Morse-Sheffield Model 41 motor car was received by the Virginian for road use in 1926 at a cost of $265.00! It was built in 1921 and used in the "Electrification Project." Having an 8.5 horsepower two cylinder engine which could run on either a mixture of oil and kerosene or oil and gasoline, this model was produced by Fairbanks Morse/Sheffield from 1919 to 1936. Originally, it was open top but according to AFE records, in 1953 the railroad had the unique half front cabs installed. Virginian signalman George Lewis started on the Virginian after World War II as a signal installer and maintainer. He worked installing the railroad's signals on the Norfolk Division and in 1953 was transferred to the New River Division. He recalls that the maintainer at Matoaka, West Virginia (milepost 356.2) has this model motor car. Mr. Lewis had this type of motor car for a brief time and remembers well its unique method of starting, direct drive; push the car to start and jump on board quickly! When the two cylinder, direct drive engine was running, the car moved! Once he stopped at a call box to talk to the dispatcher. He thought he had turned it off but as he was talking, he heard it sputter away! He said he was much younger then and he "hot footed it" down the track and finally caught it after a two mile chase! He was scared to think what could have happened if he had not caught it!

After completing the trade with friend Rick Rader to obtain this motor car, the front was sanded slightly and the original VGN marking showed through. It was VGN motor car number 109. After the VGN/N&W merger on December 1, 1959, it became N&W N109, then N&W 1033 and finally NW 1031. Rick states that it was still on the NW equipment roster in 1984! After being sold as surplus by the railroad, it was owned by a collector in Ohio who housed it indoors for over twenty years. Then Rick obtained it and now it is ours. We plan to restore it to operation and enjoy riding it. According to Rick, who has owned several motor cars, there are only five more Sheffield 41's in existence. He has one of them and says the 109 is in the best original, unrestored condition of them all. We will restore its Virginian lettering. A field phone manufactured by General Railway Supply and used by VGN signalmen and linemen is shown on the VGN 109 motor car. Clips were used to tap onto a communications line and the battery powered handset could be used to communicate with a dispatcher.

VIRGINIAN RAILWAY Motor Car Section House replica 2/3 scale

With the prospect of obtaining a Virginian motor car in the summer of 2009, I built a 2/3 scale replica of a VGN section house. It had to be built on a shoestring. Studying Virginian track maps for the Norfolk Division, I found that most motor car sheds had electricity so I ran an underground line to mine. The light on the front is a VGN light, courtesy Edwin Massie and Greg Elam, both of Victoria, Virginia. The number 1547 plate represents a location on the Virginian's Norfolk Division. Historically, milepost 154.7 was at Terry, between Phenix and Cullen. Motor car 109 had been in service on the Norfolk Division. The safety sign is a replica of signs posted by the railroad. The rails for the set-off track were given to me by Rick Rader of Roanoke. They came from a long abandoned mine in northwestern Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

VIRGINIAN RAILWAY Finial

Virginian was known for its thrifty ways, but the railroad did flirt with extravagance on a few occasions. This cast iron finial is an example, being 17 inches tall and weighing about 20 pounds. It most likely came from a pole holding a relay case at Altavista, Virginia where the railroad had a connection with the Southern Ry. It came to me from the collection of a dear friend, Kenneth "Hoppy" Hopkins, a Southern Railway Danville Division agent-operator who worked many years at the Southern depot in Altavista. He trained me as an "Agent-Operator-Leverman-Telegrapher on the Southern during the summers of my first two years in college. He were livelong friends until his death in February 2009. His daughter Cindi saw to it that I received this finial. Hoppy admired the Virginian, often saying it was "the best railroad in the country!"

VIRVINIAN RAILWAY "Call Box"

All large railroads had lineside phone boxes for train crews to use to communicate with their dispatcher under certain conditions. Research indicates that Virginian probably had lineside phones as early as 1909!

On the Virginian Railway, they were called "Call Boxes" and they served additional purposes. For example, Delbert Whitlow of Kellysville, WV, located just west of the Virginia state line, tells that in his childhood, the Virginian call boxes were always left unlocked! Having no other link to the world, the call boxes were made available for the local residents to use in case of emergencies. Residents could call the railroad dispatcher who in turn would summon the needed emergency agency, be it police, fire or rescue.

A Virginian freight conductor who worked out of Mullens, West Virginia wrote a poem inside many of the call boxes he used. Ever the railroad's president saw them and once the two men met in a Mullens drug store. "Hello Shakespeare," the president said as a greeting to the man. The creative writing went as follows: "Old John Morgan, Conductor of his train. His head in the call box and his ass out in the rain."

Victoria, Virginia resident Harry McLaughlin was a Virginian passenger and freight conductor. He remembers these call boxes being at many places along the line; at each end of a passing siding and at stations. Often the operator at most stations did not work at night so a call box was the only way for a conductor to communicate with the dispatcher. Harry also tells that it was large so that a conductor could have working space to copy train orders. The phone was mounted on the left wall and had only two lines, one to the dispatcher and another to nearby stations in the division. Call Boxes on the mainline between Roanoke and Mullens had a third line, to the power director.

VIRGINIAN RAILWAY Searchlight Signal 1949

The signal I have has a build date stamped inside of the mechanism case of December 1, 1949.The signal was used at two different locations. Its first life was along the mainline between Pax and Page, West Virginia, according to a former VGN signal maintainer. It probably was at Wriston, milepost 421.1, where the line was single track and it was a flag stop for passenger trains. The location is three miles west of Oak Hill Junction and three miles down a westbound falling grade of 2%! After the merger with N&W in 1959, the railroad lengthened several blocks in 1972, eliminating many signals. The signal was disassembled and moved from mp 421.1 to a new yard which was being created at Pluckett, West Virginia (pictured above right) on the Morri Branch of the former Virginian's Guyandot River line. The Interstate Commerce Commission had reduced the number of hours railroad trainmen could work to 12 and the railroad management knew that coal mine run crews could not complete their runs from Elmore Yard (Mullens, WV) to the coal mines of that area and return in twelve hours. Thus the Plunkett Yard was created as a home terminal and it had to be signaled. That was when my signal saw a second life until December 2007 when NS replaced it with a modern, hooded, color light signal. Its third life (pictured above left) started in the spring 2008 in our yard, standing tall and proud as in years past. It doesn't feel the ground shake with passing steam locomotives. It doesn't hear the squeal of passing wheels. No trains roll past it now: Just wildlife strolling by.

Baltimore & Ohio RR CPL Signal, circa 1930

Research indicates that the signal was a type U CPL, manufactured General Railway Supply Company and installed circa 1930. By having the lunar white lenses at 5 and 11 o'clock, it was a "home" signal, I understand. It stood for scores of years on the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (later CSX) about milepost 377, about seven miles east of Parkersburg, West Virginia at Kanawha Station, West Virginia. CSX severed the line from Grafton, West Virginia to Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1985. The last train to run over the trackage of the former Cumberland - Cincinnati - St. Louis mainline was a passenger excursion on September 1, 1985. The Grafton to Parkersburg section was known as the "Parkersburg Branch," although it certainly was not your typical branch. It was an important mainline! It was delivered to me in late December 2008. There was much work to be done on this fine old signal. The 42" background is cast iron and remarkably, all the glass lenses were unbroken! There some place on the background where rust has eaten though, however.

On Tuesday morning February 3, 2009 we received a light snow, perfect for pictures of the finished signal showing "Restricted Proceed." Not bad for just five weeks! But I am retired! The correct timer finally arrived from LightsToGo on Tuesday, February 24 and after some repair work, it was installed and working properly. I fabricated the platform from spare parts from other projects on June 8, 2010.

N&W - C&O sign for ND Cabin, Lynchburg, Va

In 1924, C&O Ry built a two story, brick interlocking tower in Lynchburg, Virginia beside the diamond of the N&W Ry crossing. The N&W double tracked "Old Mainline" tracks were from Island yard and points east, and to Union Station and points west in the opposite direction. The C&O tracks were from Richmond to the east and Clifton Forge to the west. The 1924 brick structure replaced an old wood building, also constructed by the C&O. To both railroads, it was known as ND cabin/tower. The Southern Railway also passed nearby but it crossed the N&W a few hundred yards to the west at "X" tower and for several decades all three railroads had passenger trains using Union Station, as well as streetcars of the Lynchburg Traction & Light Company. Both ND and NC towers were replaced about 1950 by the one story "NC" tower which was located across the N&W tracks, in front of Union Station. NC controlled movements on the nearby tracks of N&W, C&O and Southern Railways.

Having an original diagram book for railroad signs published by the C&O, I was able to make an accurate replica of the ND sign which was attached to the side of the brick building. Originally, there were two signs on either side of the southwest corner, at second floor level. On the eastern side, hung a sign, "N&W Crossing" which lasted into the 21st century!
The replica sign was finished and hung March 19, 2009. The picture of ND Cabin was made in February 2009.

New York Central Pump House Light

We have an unusual light for the entrance walkway to the Relic Garden mounted on the end of our Texaco Gas Station - Country Store replica. The light was thrown away from the old New York Central pump house at Gauley Bridge, WV on the Kanawha River. The structure provided water from the river for steam engines working on the branch between Charleston, WV, the Virginian at Deepwater and beyond to several coal mines.

C&O Right of Way Post

Standing about four feet above ground, this concrete post from the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway's Lexington branch off the James River Subdivision was found north of Buena Vista, Va. after the flood from Hurricane Agnes in 1972. That was the second time in three years this line had suffered severely from hurricane caused flooding of the Maury River. C&O abandoned most of the line after the 1969 flood and used N&W trackage through the area until the 1972 flood ended even that operation.

VIRGINIAN and C&O Whistle Posts

Flanking the entrance to the old brick walkway into our Circle Garden are two railroad whistle posts, each special and unique.

In July 2008, close friend Greg Elam brought me a unique gift, an actual whistle post from the Virginian Railway! The concrete post is nine and a half feet long and weights about 350 to 400 pounds. Railroads placed whistle posts to alert approaching engine crews of a road or highway crossing ahead so that they would start sounding the correct warning as their train reached the crossing. Some railroads had metal whistle posts but on the Virginian, they were cast in concrete.

The concrete C&O whistle post was a special gift from good friend Tom Clay in December 2009. It came from the ex Nicholas Fayette & Greenbrier Railroad which was abandoned by CSX in 2000. When the NF&G predecessor lines were built in the early twentieth century, the 143 mile long system became the Sewall Valley Railroad. Through a joint lease of the NF&G, the C&O and New York Central railroads took over ownership and operation in 1920. Putting it simply, the NYC connected on the west end at Swiss and the C&O connected at the end of a southern branch at Meadow Creek. The western sections were run by the NYC and the rest were operated by the C&O. The system served both lumber and coal operations. The whistle post was located near Anjean, about milepost 5.65 on the Big Clear Creek branch (Rupert branch) out of Rainelle, WV. The Meadow River Lumber Company had a company store and a siding near the location of the whistle post, which governed eastbound trains enroute to the end of the branch to Clearco.

South River Lumber Company

South River Lumber Company Brake Wheel Operating from 1916 until 1938, the South River Lumber Company had a system of three and a half foot gauge tracks stretching from a connection with the N&W's Shenandoah Division at Cornwall into three Virginia counties in the Blue Ridge Mountains; Rockbridge, Amherst and Nelson counties. Statistically, the line had five two truck Climax locomotives and hauled over 100 million board feet of logs to its saw mill at Cornwall, Virginia. The brake wheel with a bent shaft was found while hiking an eastern most section in Amherst County. The log cars that used this wheel were link and pin coupler type, very dangerous for the railroad workers.

C&O Ry. Switchstand Lights

Comfortable evenings, sitting on the gazebo outside a bedroom door, are lightened by the soft colors glowing from these two Chesapeake & Ohio Railway switchstand lights. The light with green and red lenses and reflectors was located on a switchstand where a siding converged with a mainline track. The light with green and yellow lenses and reflectors was located on a switchstand where another side track or spur converged with the siding track.

Southern Railway Steam Locomotive Bell

This brass bell came from a yard engineer with the Southern Railway who worked the yard at Monroe, Virginia. In the later years of steam engines at Monroe yard, the 0-8-0 type was used, but the number of the locomotive this bell is from is unknown. The hanger and clapper are not original and all bolts have been welded in place.

Virginian Railway milepost 141, Norfolk Division

When the Virginian railroad was being built 1904-1909, wood mileposts were located every mile with milepost zero being at the railroad's Freight Station in Norfolk, Virginia. Within a decade, concrete mileposts replaced the earlier ones. Over the life of the railroad it is believed that there were two generations of concrete posts, this being of the first generation style. Interestingly, milepost 141 was the last one passed by Buffalo Bill's eastbound Wild West train in October 1916 before it derailed. The show suffered terribly but continued to perform in eastern Virginia and North Carolina for nearly two more months before Bill Cody left the show. He died in the following January at his sister's home in Colorado. This post was found abandoned along the vacant right of way in 2008. It weighs 600 pounds and is eight feet long.

VGN Ry Locomotive Light and N&W Ry Whistle Post

Visitors are welcomed by a marker light from Virginian Railway locomotive number 468, a class MC. The family monogram "W" is actually a cast iron whistle post form the N&W Ry. Railroads placed whistle posts in advance of road and street crossings so that engineers would blow their engine's whistle, alerting traffic of the train's approach.

Norfolk & Western Position Light Signal

In January 2008 I purchased for scrap a 1925 N&W signal that had been used on the railroad's Shenandoah Division in the area of Natural Bridge, Virginia. After many weeks of work to restore the metal parts by sand blasting away the rust, primer paint and finish coats of paint, plus repairing the light parts and rewiring the signal, it was ready for a timer. A pole was obtained and after Charlotte and I rented a power auger and drilled a hole 3 feet deep, it was erected and set in 600 pounds of concrete. Now it replicates a signal I photographed very often with passing trains as a teen along the old mainline through Lynchburg.

C&O Watchman's Shanty from World War II

In 1942, the United States FBI learned of a Nazi plan to sabotage strategic railroad targets in the United States. Two teams of highly trained saboteurs had been landed by German submarines along the northeast coast. Fortunately, they were captured before they could fulfill their objectives, but nonetheless, terror was struck in the hearts of Americans and American businessmen as they realized how vulnerable America was.
Interrogation revealed that their targets included locations on the Pennsylvania, New York, New Haven and Hartford, New York Central, Great Northern, and Chesapeake & Ohio railroads. For the targeted railroad serving Lynchburg, the Chesapeake & Ohio, one of the results of planning-by-preventing was to construct, locate and man small structures, manned by watchmen around the clock, at railway tunnels, trestles and bridges. Many were in use by the end of 1942. After the war, the "watchboxes" served track walkers who patrolled the railroad daily. In 1977, C&O was destroying the shanties and I was able to obtain one, move it home and restore it. The color scheme pictured is how it looked when built in 1942.

A path of old tie plates leads to the garden.