Glade Spring station information

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Scribit Andrezj: 

So Abram ol' pal: 
Did you shoot any photos of said truncated structure while you were working that job? 
And thanx for answering the question I'd always had about when the old depot was razed. 
Any other memories of how that job was worked, loads hauled in/out, would be appreciated. 
Thankee kindly, 
? 
Andre Jackson 


>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 


Sorry, Andre, I don't have any information or recollections about that "inter- galactic" period between the two dates I gave you, when demolition began on the old Glade Spring, Va depot (1964,) and the new tin station was opened (1965.)   I simply do not recall. 

I do remember the large room in the west end of the old station at Glade Spring, which served as the Agent's office and Telegraph Office.  The Train Register for the Saltville Branch was located in the north west corner of that room (reckoning by railroad Time Table directions, viz. east/west, ) and the Saltville Shifter crews reported there.   The Operator's desk was on the south side of the room, and faced the main line.  I do not recall if there was a passenger waiting room left standing, but there probably was, and it would have been to the east of the Telegraph Office.  So I guess it was the freight warehouse portion of the building which had been removed.  I do recall that there had been no attempt to cover or close up the demoli tion damage, and the bare timbers were exposed on the east end of the building. The only thing which I got out of the old structure was the old brass Adams Express Co.  wax sealer, which I found in a drawer and which I will make sure goes back to Glade Spring some day.  Wh y did I not take photographs...? 

I do not remember the Agent's name (we seldom saw him.)  But the second trick operator was named Cotton P. Belcher (pronounced "Belker," following the German etymology of that surname.) 

The fellows on the First and Second Glade Spring Shifters all lived locally , except for two of the three brakeman's jobs on the Second Saltville Shifter, and these two vacancies were always filled by force-assigning the youngest trainmen out of Roanoke.  That meant that the Second job always had two green-horn brakemen on it.  The Conductor on the Second job was Howard L. "Nip" Eller.  The Head End Brakeman was Vernon L. "Peco" Norris, and the Engineman was Robert O. "Frog" Lester.   I was force assigned once as the Middle Brakeman, and once as the Flagman on that job.  I also caught the Saltville jobs  several times off the Roanoke Extra List, and usually deadheaded down on No. 41 to cover them .  (We always deadheaded by passenger train back then, and sometimes by freight train, riding on the caboose.)  Naturally, Nip and Peco were not exactly enthusiastic about always having to work with two green-horns, but that was the luck of the draw for them.  And of course, the force-assigned green-horns always wired the Trainmaster to please, please, please  advertise their job as soon as some new man was marked up, so they could get back home! 

Why did the Saltville jobs (and some of the other locals) have a "Middle Brakeman"?  Well, this was in the days before radios, and it was the Middle man's job to ride on top of the train and pass signals fro m the field to the Engineman.  This was especially necessary when switching on the curves at Plasterco.  At Plasterco, we usually carried the caboose next to the entine, so the Middle Man would have a decent place to ride while passing signals. 

The regular men on the Saltville jobs always referred to Roanoke (and specifically to Shaffers Crossing) as "Dog Town."  You can understand why when you realize that they themselves were  sometimes forced to Roanoke (e.g. when being marked up on the Conductor's Extra List,) and then  had to live in the VASCO beanery at Shaffers Crossing, until they could bid back home !  Therefore, we frequently heard them say things like, "I have two new brakemen from Dog Town."  Such appelations made one fell really welcome on the job.  The sense of exclusion for a Dog Town-er was exacerbated by the fact that Peco Norris, the Head End Brakeman on the Second Shifter, "ran" the job (i.e. called the moves,) and he was not an easy person to get along with.  Ergo, "getting forced to glade" was not an experience one relished. 

"Accomodations" for a Dog Town-er who landed in Glade were spartan.  Da Comp'ny furnished a wooden box car with a door and several windows cut into it, placed a quarter mile west of the depot and and on the north side of the main line .  Sometimes an extra operator, shipped from Roanoke to cover a vacancy, would also put in at this seaport  and bunk with us.  There were either four or six army surplus bunks in this "facility ," equipped with horsehair caboose cushions which served as matresses.  One brought his own blanket (no one brought sheets or pillows.)  The car was partitioned, the east end having the bunks and the west end being the "kitchen."  The kitchen was equipped with an oil stove, which both heated the car and provided for cooking.  As for utensils, the fellows had brought a few pots and pans, and that was it.  There was no toilet.  As you can imagine, this "lodging facility" was as hot as blazes in Summer, and as cold as Alaska in Winter ! 

If one wanted to wash up after work, there was a very small building (brick, I think) a few feet from our "wooden hotel," which served as the Enginemen's Register Room.  I think it was a left over building from the old Glade Spring Main Line coal wharf.   In addition to a desk for the Enginemen's Register, this building  had a grungy shower and a toilet.  Save for these marvellous amenities, one was on his own when "forced up the road to Glade." 

In the town itself, there were only three things that a Dog Towner needed.  One was a little barber shop, across the town square from the depot.  Haircuts cost a quarter.   Second was a dinky, hole-in-the-wall  grocery store.  The third was The Eagle Diner, located in a tum ble-down old brick building situated directly west of the depot and across a grassy plot (where the new "tin" station building was  later built.)  The Eagle was run by a very pleasant older lady whom everyone called "Granny Norris."  The fare was humble (breakfast items, hamburgers, beans, soda,) and for 50 cents or less one could get a better meal that he could wrestle up in the Comp'ny's Glade Spring Box Car Hotel. 

Some time I'll dig out my old time books and post some consists, crews engines and times.  I also have a few photos taken from the caboose on the Saltville jobs, if you want them. 

-- abram burnett 

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