North Carolina Branch (Pulaski to Galax/Fries)

[NW Mailing List]

Attached is a copy of my letter to the Editor of The  Arrow, published in 
response to Doug Midkiff's article  Working the Third Trick at Pulaski that 
appeared in the July/August  2005 issue. (My letter appears in the 
November/December issue.) You can  see my mention of Number 49, The Cripple Creek" as it was 
known  locally. It is in fact unfortunate that more has not been documented and 
 photographed as to the North Carolina Branch. It traversed some very pretty  
country. 
 
John Carnahan, Columbus, Ohio  
 
In a message dated 11/16/2007 11:25:27 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

On Nov  16, 2007 12:01 AM, Andre wrote:

> Lessee, the reasons I've heard were  bad roads and lack of rail traffic

> frequency.

> The same applies  to the connecting Bristol line itself. Why spend half a 

day

> waiting  for a train on a single-track line when the busy N&W main wasn't  

all

> that far away, with a lot more chances to score.


Yep, Andre  pretty much hit the mark. Even today, getting "trackside"
along the branch  isn't easy. It would have been more of a hassle back
when more trains were  running but roads weren't as good. There are
some pretty isolated sections  of track/river through there and most
access points took the long way  'round to get to (drop into Byllsby
Dam some day -- scenic but not the  quickest travel).  As time was
winding down on the North Carolina  Branch in the mid '80s, one train
per week served the branch on Wednesdays,  leaving Radford Yard in the
morning and making a day of it. Grant Carpenter  and I made several
forays along the line to "chase" the line before it was  gone for good.
With a collection of maps, a scanner (Dwight Henry was the  ATM out of
Radford and he followed the train by vehicle, keeping track of  the
train's progress by radio in case the crew ran into problems or had  a
mishap), and the walking pace of the train, we were able to catch  the
train in several locations. It took some doing to get to and from  some
of the locations, but the effort was worth it.  It is too bad  this
line wasn't better documented in photos and videos, because the  crews
who worked the branch got to travel through some pretty  scenic
territory.

Bruce in  Blacksburg
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