Flag stops on N&W or was that the VGN ? .. and where else?

[NW Mailing List]

Skipper:

Your rendition of some of the what's and why's of flag stops I find
most interesting and have both some questions as well as some followup
information.

On Southern Railway, or at least in some places at least, there was a
flag like structure literally on a rope mounted on a pole and when a
person was waiting there, they would raise the flag to the top so the
engineer and conductor would be able to hopefully see it far enough
ahead to be able to stop in time and pickup the person and/or freight
and express however the case may be. I have had the device described
to me by a person who actually remembers using it in the 1940's and
his memory was a sharp as can be.

I also have a photo of one of these devices at a mainline station
which did have an assigned agent but the date is uncertain (circa
1910-1920), but it is there without a doubt.

That they had to sometimes backup to make their pickup cannot be
denied, of course, especially if they didn't expect a pickup or had
restricted viewing for any number of reasons like curves, hills,
slippery track or just going too fast to make a safe stop.

That said, this whole issue of flag stops and their magnitude is an
interesting issue and I strongly suspect that the era involved may
have something to do with it as well. Once the railroads started into
CTC and began eliminating active agencies, not to mention passenger
trains, the snowball began rolling on the issue.

So here's a question and I suspect as I am surmising, that the RR and
era make for a more detailed query; what if it was a flag stop but
still had an active agency (let's say for freight or express for
argument's sake), was the flag method used by the agent, just like
putting out the stop sign on a semaphore? And of course for which RR's
can we speak about on the issue?

There are some mighty interesting permutations and combinations this
question can morph into here.

Bob Cohen


Here was the original posting by Skip.

Today's Topics:

1. "Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon (NW Mailing List)
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Message: 1 Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 08:44:03 -0500

The Jewel from the Past is from January 13, 2005: "'Slick' Inge
commented on flag stops. He said that at every station where there was
an agent, the passenger trains were prepared to stop for passengers.
He doesn't remember any particular color flag or light being used,
just a
stop signal. He said at 'flag stops' where there was no agent, anyone
could stop the train. He even remembered sometimes the train had to
'back up to pick up someone'".