Salem, Virginia Stations

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>I'll bet that the Salem station was moved "up on the hill" at the time this portion of the Radford Division was double tracked, and 1891 would be about right for that.
> 
>Then the question becomes this:  Between the time of the double tracking and the time when automatic block signaling was installed, where were the manual block stations?  The block from WB to Glenvar would have been 8 miles long.  Was 8 miles too long for a block on this busy piece of main line, especially where a water tank and a middle track was involved?  Or was there a block and train order station in the old Salem freight station until the automatic block signals came around, thus splitting the 8 mile block between WB and Glenvar?

Yes, Salem station was a block office, telegraph call SD, per my research of timetables in the N&W archives at the VT library.  Here is the line-up from Timetable #3 (effective Sunday, July 4, 1897) through timetable #18 (effective Sunday, May 26, 1901), which at least shows Salem as active.  I'll have to do some digging in my notes to come up with exact details of when things might have changed.

West Roanoke	2.0	UN	Tower and train order office near 24th St, Shaffer's Crossing
			WB	Train order office at west end of Roanoke Yard
Salem		6.1	SD	Salem depot
Deyerle			DY	Deyerle block office, near Salem brick works
Glenvar		11.2	DY	Glenvar tower; installed when Deyerle was closed

See http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bharper/nwrwy/NWRad1.html

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Bruce B. Harper                              (540)231-4360
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