N&W Shenandoah Division

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Routing traffic from Greensboro  via  Winston-Salem and NW dates back to
before the merger.  When I was working extra as an operator at Chamblee, Ga.
on Southern Railway, I billed out tri-levels of new automobiles from the
BOP  assembly plant in Doraville, Ga.  Account of clearance restrictions near
POT Yard, the tri-levels were routed  Southern via Greensboro to Winston-
Salem, then north on the Shenandoah Division of the N&W on the Punkin
Line   via  Martinsville, Roanoke,  Waynesboro,  Luray, and Front Royal to
Hagerstown, Md. where they were interchanged with other roads, thus
by-passing  Pot Yard.   The empty tri-levels were both billed and stencilled
"When Mty Return  via Reverse Route to Agent, Southern Railway, Chamblee,
Ga."   New automobiles were hustled from Inman Yard in Atlanta north to
Greensboro, N.C. on Hot Shot train No. 222. You could pretty well  bet
that train No. 155 would stop at Pomona Yard daily to pick up a cut of empty
tri-levels and bring them to  Inman Yard in Atlanta.  Loaded and empty tri-
levels were run into and out of Atlanta on an as needed Chamblee Turn. 
During the early 70's I have personally seen cuts of 40 to 50 loaded
tri-levels
moving north through Martinsville, Va.  I once stayed at a Howard Johnson
Motel at Troutville, Va. that sat high on a hill within sight of the
Shenandoah
Division north of Roanoke, and watched a couple of  slow drags in the
distance made up nearly entirely of new automobiles. Southern eventually
upgraded their line between  Manassas, Va. and Shenandoah Jct. on the N&W,
thus getting the long haul on the new autos and still by-passing Pot Yard.
Although Pot yard no longer exists, Norfolk Southern still depends heavily
on the Manassas branch to by-pass the congestion around Alexandria and
Washington, D.C., which CSX is  still stuck with.   Bill Sellers