Marion, Va. Station

[NW Mailing List]

Jimmy, 
  
Many, many years ago, in the early 1980's, I wrote to N&W/NS Public Relations when they were still in Roanoke.  I requested copies of the plans for the passenger station at Shenandoah, as well as the passenger and freight station plans for Luray.  I received plans marked respectively for Shenandoah and Luray.  A later attempt to obtain further station drawings was answered with a note that all drawings had been sent to Atlanta. 
  
I believe these drawings were stored in trailers and were not accessible in general.  It is my understanding that whatever remained/survived in those trailers is now in possession of the NWHS. 
  
Ron is correct in that many stations were built to the same basic plan.  The depots at Farmville, Abingdon, Berryville, Shepherdstown and Luray are great examples.  The wooden depots at, for example, Elkton and Buchanan are very similar in plan, but yet still distinctive.  
  
I would further note that the depot at Shenandoah is very similar to that at Narrows; however, the freight/express portion of Narrows is much larger.  My plans for Shenandoah make no mention of the depot at Narrows. 
  
My guess is that standards plans were used to select the style of depot to be constructed at a given location; however, I believe that there would still have been drawings made for each location. 
  
I have only visited Marion, VA on one occasion during a long-ago railfan trip during a NWHS BOD meeting.  My recollection of the depot is that it is somewhat unique; thus, I agree with you that there were plans drawn for it. 
  
Having put a few hours in at the Archives, and been fortunate enough to view some of the materials there, it is obvious to me that N&W kept their draftsman extremely busy; after all, one only need to scan a list of drawings for a boxcar or hopper to see that they made drawings of even the smallest parts used in construction of rolling stock. 
  
The unknown, of course, is what else is in the Archives to be cataloged; my bet is there are still many depot drawings just waiting to be discovered. 
  
FWIW. 
  
Jim Brewer 

----- Original Message -----

From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> 
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> 
Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2014 4:02:47 PM 
Subject: Re: Marion, Va. Station 

Ron, 
    There must have been drawings of each individual station made at some time or at least all of the standard designs. Do we have any idea what the Engineering Dept. may have done with the drawings? 

Jimmy Lisle 

On 11/14/2014 11:19 PM, NW Mailing List wrote: 


Jimmy, 

There are not many station drawings for all of the reasons you list and more. 

One thing to understand is that most stations were constructed using a number of standard designs. 

The station at Farmville, VA is notable in that it was the first of a family of First Class stations all built to a standard design. The drawings for the Farmville station were also used for a number of other stations such as Luray and Charlestown, WV. 

There is also a set of drawings for Second Class stations that were built at smaller towns. 

The same standard drawings would be used to show basic design and construction methods to be used. Based on traffic at a given station, the freight and passenger areas would be enlarged or reduced from the "standard" size to match the demand. 

Archives link to first class stations 
http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/selectdocs.php?index=s&id=70 

Archives link to second class stations 
http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/selectdocs.php?index=s&id=123 

These were not the only standard designs used for stations on the N&W. 

So to answer your question, there is not a set of drawings for the Marion station specifically as it was built from a set of standard drawings that were used for many stations using that same design. 

Ron Davis 




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