NRH&W - Boxley Contract to Build Branch to Suiter, 1913

[NW Mailing List]

Rather than a W, you would have more likely ridden behind a G1 (numbers 4 & 5)
Jim Nichols 

    On Thursday, August 16, 2018 8:08 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
 

 From Railway Age, vol.55, p. 1048, Nov. 28, 1913 : NEW RIVER HOLSTON & WESTERN.  An officer of this company, which operates a line from Narrows, Va., west to Rocky Gap, 21 miles,  writes that a contract has been given to J. J. Boxley & Son, Roanoke, Va., to build an extension from Rocky Gap to Suiters, in Bland county, 15 miles..................................................................................................................................................
Most things which I never got to see fascinate me, and it is no different with the New River Holston & Western RR (the N&W's "Narrows Branch.")   So last October, when I was visiting Judge Frank Akers' newly restored emporium at Rural Retreat Grand Union Terminal Station, I build an extra day into my travel schedule to drive both the Stony Creek RR (Potts Valley Branch) and the NRH&W, north to south, beginning at Paint Bank.  The Potts Valley was a disappointment, as very little of the present highway uses the old railroad grade.  But the NRH&W was a different story,  as almost all of the present highway is on the old railroad grade, including the 5.5 mile branch from Bastian out to Suiter.  Fortunately, there was an old gentleman working on the church building at Bastian who was able to give pointers.  (For the first mile or so west of Bastian, the present hard surface road to Suiter does not utilize the railroad R/W.)
What I wouldn't give to ride an old Class W Consolidation on the Narrows-to-Bastian-and-Suiter Local !  And if you are looking for the calmest place in the world for a retirement home in a peaceful, lovely valley, check out Suiter.
There were no items worthy of "railroad photography" on the NRH&W, so all I came back with were two photos of the highway name signs (both shot under adverse lighting conditions at the end of the day,) to evoke pleasant memories of a day well spent in Bland County.  Attachments.
Does anyone know what became of the NRH&W men when the N&W abandoned the line in 1946?  Did they have seniority rights on the Radford Division jobs?
-- abram burnett
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Successor to the MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH LINE of 1844
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