N&W in 1910--Blocking system

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
November 29, 1910

THE GRAHAM DAILY NEWS
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Automatic Blocking System
    The automatic equipment being installed on the Norfolk and Western through Graham is nearing completion.  The automatic blocking system on the Pocahontas division will probably be put in service on or before January the first.  The Graham signal interlocking plant has been equipped with indicators and signal bells and when the arrangement is put to work the operator on duty in the tower can tell by these indicators when trains are approaching at a distance of two miles.  Railroad men say the system being put in by the Norfolk and Western road is similar to that now in use by the Pennsylvania lines.  A force of expert signal men from New York have been here for several months supervising the installation of the automatic block system on the Pocahontas division.
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[This was more than just a system at one or more towers to let an operator know that a train was "on the block."  The Annual Report for the year ending June 30, 1911, states that block signals were installed between Bluefield and Ennis, W. Va. (among other places).  Ennis is between Maybeury and Elkhorn.]

Gordon Hamilton
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