Durham District in the '50s

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Jerry, 
 
Thanks for pointing out link to the topo map that shows the connections of  
the A&D and the L&D. Yesterday (Sunday) I went to Denniston, asked  a local man 
who lives in the old general store at the cross road about the  Junction.  He 
took me a couple hundred yards to the site of the A&D  crossing over the N&W 
track.  Everything from the A&D (NF&D) is  gone: track, railbed, bridge, 
building, everything.  Just a crop of briers,  trees and bushes.  I didn't go down 
to the track nor further  along down the dirt road that looks as if it went 
where the  connecting track that you see on the topo map might be.  All the more 
 reason for another trip up there.
 
In the stuff that I have and have read about the Lynchburg and Durham and  
the Durham District of the N&W, there isn't much said about Denniston.   I don't 
know much about the A&D other than what little there was in a Google  search 
I did.  I think the A&D predated the L&D by a few years and  that it started 
out as a narrow gauge railroad and about 1985(?) converted to  standard gauge.  
The people of Roxboro (my home town) in 1890 were  more excited about 
connecting to South Boston than to Danville and little was  made of Denniston in the 
local paper.  The L&D RR Annual  Reports barely mention Denniston Junction. 
So, my question is the same as  yours. What would a connection to the A&D have 
offered to the L&D  and later the N&W and why wouldn't it have been more 
emphasized at least  locally? 
 
Chuck Stewart
Bahama, NC

In a message dated 3/28/05 3:46:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

Friends, Railroaders, Historians, (and everyone else who just loves  a good 
discussion about the N&W :)
 
Last week Brother Fred Mullins asked the question, "Does anybody know how  
much interchange usage was made between the N&W and the A&D at  (Denniston?) off 
the L&D line in the 50's?"
 
To which Brother Chuck Stewart replied, "...a copy of the 1926 track map  for 
 the line from Lynchburg to Durham.  It was revised last in  1968.  At 
milepost L-70 there is a notation on the map of  "A.&  D.  Ry - O.H. Xing".  The A&D 
goes over the L&D (I  think.....I  will have to check that out) and there is 
no  
interchange."
 
This discussion peaked my interest, so not having been there personally,  I 
decided to go to Denniston virtually. At _http://www.topozone.com/_ 
(http://www.topozone.com/) , I looked up  Denniston and viewed the USGS map of the area.  
It does indeed show that  the NF&D (former A&D) crossed over the N&W (former  
L&D), and that there was an interchange between the two!    The connection 
ran from East to South between the railroads, meaning that if  you were 
traveling West on the NF&D, you could take the connecting switch  to the left, follow 
the connection to the South, and connect with  the N&W heading South.  Also, 
each railroad had a short siding at  Denniston where the connecting track 
joined the respective railroads.
 
After looking at the USGS map, I remembered (silly me),  that I have  track 
charts of the N&W! My chart of the Durham District dated  Jan 1, 1979 clearly 
shows the overhead crossing of the NF&D over the  N&W, the interchange track, 
and the sidings.
 
So now we know we at least had the potential for interchange between the  
railroads at Denniston.  So the only questions remaining is, "What, if  anything, 
was actually interchanged there?"  
 
Jerry Kay, Portsmouth, Virginia





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