Station drawings

[NW Mailing List]

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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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

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Ron and Jimmy:

This has been an interesting topic for me.  One point is that the Charles Town, WV, station appears to be similar to Narrows, VA, and was nearly identical to Boyce, VA.  It is not the same design as Luray, Berryville, or Abingdon.  Charles Town was brick while Boyce is stucco on clay block.  Some other differences from Boyce: 1) Charles Town freight house is larger was separated from the rest of the depot by a breezeway; 2) the agent's office and records room completely partitioned the two waiting rooms; 3) both waiting rooms had a perimeter of lights around the top of the wall; 4) the white men's room entry was within the white waiting room; and 5) the coal chute entry was at the parking lot side of the depot.

The N&W "standard plans" do not contain all of the detailed construction plans for foundation and structure.  They are a general guide which was adjusted according to the needs of the community.  For example, the freight room size and door configuration varied according to the amount of historical traffic at the time that a replacement depot was constructed.

My conclusion is that specific size and configuration information was provided to the building contractor.  It may have been the building contractor which prepared the detailed construction plans which usually consisted of several sheets, five of which were the four side elevations and the floor plan.  There were additional drawings for electrical and plumbing.  None of this information are within the standard plans.

John P. Pettyjohn (JPP) and Company built Boyce depot during 1913 and Charles Town a year later.  Whether JPP or another contractor constructed the building, I believe that they created their own plans and bill of materiel to complete the project.  These may or may not have been turned over to the N&W Railway but if they were, I have not seen many examples in the Archives.  I have seen two pages of drawings for Charles Town that a member provided to me, but I don't know if the originals are in the Archives.
 
Best wishes,

Dr. Frank R. Scheer, Curator
Railway Mail Service Library, Inc. 
f_scheer at yahoo.com 
(202) 268-4996 - weekday office 
(540) 837-9090 - Saturday afternoon 
In the 1913 former N&W Railway depot along Clarke County route 723
117 East Main Street
Boyce, VA 22620-9369  USA