History of the Double Track to North Roanoke

[NW Mailing List]

Abram,

So there is a Union Switch & Signal Library? Is that yours or is it an actual brick and mortar place? I would be interested in obtaining more information on it.

Thanks.

Brent Stevens
-----Original Message-----
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Feb 8, 2023 11:02 AM
To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: History of the Double Track to North Roanoke

Does anyone have a feel for the year(s) in which the double track was extended northward from the the junction at Randolph Street, up to North Roanoke?
 
Almost certainly a portion of the double track was original Shenandoah Valley construction - but how much?
 
What piqued my curiosity on this matter was finding a second reference indicating that the Telegraph Operator jobs at North Roanoke were held by men with Radford Division seniority.  Strange as this may sound today, that probably stemmed from an early arrangement/understanding whereby everything at Roanoke was administratively  part of the Radford Division.  A "Roanoke Terminal Division" was not established until December 1918.  (See Railway Age, vol 65, Dec 20, 1918, p. 1139.)
 
>From the few scraps of information I have found (one photo, several Time Table references, and a few tangential references in the trade literature,) North Roanoke Tower was a Block Station and Train Order Office only, and there was no interlocking there.  Which means that the Operator probably handled the switch.  The building was a two story frame building on the west side of the track.
 
But, shucks, I don't even know when "NR" Tower at North Roanoke was opened, and when it was closed.  Its opening date may be keyed to the extension of the double track northward.
 
As an aside, the Union Switch & Signal library had a photo of a clever little apparatus the N&W had cobbled up using old-timey Gill Selectors as the field-end control to interlock the switch and signals at the north end of the double track.  This enabled the Train Dispatcher to operate North Roanoke as a remotely controlled interlocking.  I have forgotten the date, but it was around 1920.  The control of remote functions by the Time Code Control method used in CTC systems, was still almost two decades in the future, so the use of Gill Selectors was a quite clever move for the N&W men.  Nor have I seen any reference to what signal rules were in effect between the junction and North Roanoke, in the early days.
 
The Roanoke newspaper article covering the burning of the Division Office Building at Park Street, Dec 1, 1934, mentions that two indicator lamps related to the North Roanoke interlocking remained lit on the Shenandoah Division Train Dispatcher's desk, even after the fire.  (I no longer have a copy of that newspaper article... in case anyone is generous and wants to send me a copy (-: . )
 
So, if anyone has worked out the history of the double track to North Roanoke, fire away, please.
 
-- abram burnett
Poseidon Plasma Arc Turnips, ver. 2.0
 


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