Pocahontas Division towers

[NW Mailing List]

Harry,

I took a look at the Clinchfield timetables from 1943 through 1958, and 
there's no mention of a SX Tower in those either, simply St. Paul Tower, the 
same as you found on the 1982 dispatcher's sheet.

Up until just recently I had access to a complete collection of both Railway 
Age and Railway Signaling magazines, but the museum which held those had a 
fire in July and is now closed. Looking back, I would imagine there would 
have been an article (1957 era) on the Clinch Valley traffic control system 
installation which might have provided some information.

That 1917 USRA inventory that you mentioned...is there anything in there 
about the interlocking at Cedar Bluff? Also, is there a inventory for the 
Dry Fork and Buchanan Branches which might help with information on the 
towers at Dry Fork Jct. (Iaeger), Devon and Weller?

Thanks again for your help!

Ron


> -----Original Message-----

> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> To: nw-mailing-list <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Sent: Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:41

> Subject: Re: Pocahontas Division towers

>

>

> A 1955 Pocahontas Div. timetable shows no SX Tower.  Traffic control was a 

> long time coming

> to the Clinch Valley (1957), but Clinchfield converted to CTC long before 

> N&W and that may have

> caused the closing of "SX".  Having reviewed the USRA's 5/17/17 inventory 

> for the Graham-

> Norton territory, I found no entry for a tower on the N&W, so it must have 

> been a Clinchfield

> operation, not that there's anything wrong with that.  There is no diamond 

> at St. Paul, so

> Clinchfield trains travel for a few hundred feet on the N&W before 

> diverting to Dante or Erwin.

> Here's a real head-scratcher.  On 1982 Clinchfield dispatcher's train 

> sheets, the station is

> shown as St. Paul TOWER.                                Harry Bundy