location - Christiansburg Middle Track

[NW Mailing List]

Abram,

Thank you for some excellent operating related history.  And I fully agree with you: those who never knew the grand institution of railroading, which was largely gone by  the 1960s, have missed the local impact and presence  of railroading.

I have a question which I suspect you can answer.  While looking at some N&W maps from the 1940s and 1950s, I noticed a branch line somewhere between Radford and Walton going to a place called Miles on the map.  Having lived in Montgomery County almost 60 years, I have never heard on any place referred to as Miles. Any light you can shed on this, such as where was Miles and why did N&W have branch line to it, would be most insightful.

      Ray Smoot

From: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2023 11:50 AM
To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: location - Christiansburg Middle Track

I overlooked one element of Comrade Garner's questions, viz. the Christiansburg Middle Track.

ANSWER:  Yes, the Christiansburg Middle, which extended from Christiansburg a mile eastward to the old location of BX Tower, was gone by the time I began swinging a lantern in 1964.  It was also gone in 1957-1958, when I was a kid hanging around Christiansburg.

There was a genuine maelstrom going on in the 1950s and into the 1950s, which resulted in the liquidation of track assets (like Middle Tracks) :

1.)  The general decline in the number of passenger trains.  One of the very real functions of middle tracks was to afford a "hole" into which a freight train could duck, to "get off the time" of a following First Class train.   The Train Dispatcher did not have to be involved in this.  The freight crew knew, from the Time  Table, when a following First Class train was due, and when their train "fell back" on that time, they went in on the middle track.  Of course, they reported this to the Train Dispatcher by using the wayside telephone.

Some Middle Tracks  were so placed because freight trains routinely stopped there.  Elliston and Blake are examples.  All eastward freight trains stopped at those points to turn-down retaining valves and make an inspection.

2.)  The installation of "reverse signaling" brought on by Centralized Traffic Control.

Although "reverse signaling" of main tracks is not, by definition, a part of Centralized Traffic Control, the installation of reverse signaling at the time of installation of CTC was one of the huge time-and-money saving benefits.  After CTC, trains could be operated "on either track, in either direction, on signal indication."  That meant the Current of Traffic concept was done away with, and Train Orders were no longer required to run Against the Current of Traffic, because there WAS no more Current of Traffic.

Once CTC was in place, the Train Dispatcher could often plan ahead and "detour" a First Class train around a slow moving freight, by using the opposite track.  Which meant that the need for maintaining Middle Tracks was often no longer required.  And thus they were pulled up.

3.)  The  advent of the Diesel-thingies instantly doubled train length.  Which meant fewer crews were needed and what Middle Tracks were left would not hold the monster-size trains which were now being operating.

4.)  The general business recession of 1956-1957 and following years caused a general decline in railroad business across the nation.  Fewer trains = fewer tracks needed.  Beginning in 1956, the N&W axed a large number of its agency stations (which handled ticket sales, freight waybilling, LCL freight shipments... and Train Orders.)

5.)  The almost complete collapse of American heavy manufacturing, especially in the northeast:  much less traffic, fewer sidings, fewer crews to handle the remaining business.  Every track which could be pulled up, was pulled up.

6.)  The interstate highway system, which began coming on-stream in the very late 1950s, was the cork in the bottle for American railroading.  And factor in the airplane-thingie, as well.  From there, it was pretty much all down hill for the next twenty-five years.

By the 1960s, railroading as it had been known just a decade before, was gone forever.

Add into mix this a few other things:  the Firemen came off, the first Brakeman came off, the second Brakeman came off, cabooses came off.  (The introduction of the radio was responsible for huge losses in the Train Service ranks.)  The hand-maintenance of track was mechanized and MW forces drastically reduced.  The replacement of the friction bearing with the roller bearing probably reduced the number of car maintenance people, over the years, by a fifth.   EDI (electronic data interchange) was implemented and thousands upon thousands of clerks, once a ubiquitous commodity on railroads, vanished completely within a decade.  Paper records, and the problems associated with their storage, were replaced with digital information accessible to everyone wiith just a keystroke.  Sales and Marketing and waybilling and revenue collection and Train Dispatching and engineering were centralized into some big, far-away city like Atlanta or Jacksonville or Houston.  General Office Buildings (like Roanoke's) emptied out and became surplus assets.  Yards and humps, and shop tracks and locomotive shops, once vibrant with commerce and feeding many families, became grass fields.  Due to advances in remote control electronic technology, a Train Dispatcher who formerly handled 150 miles of track with the aid of several Operators along the line, was now handling 300, 400, or in some cases 500 miles of track, all by himself.

I feel sorry for the generation which will never be able to see railroading as the grand institution which it once was...

-- abram burnett,
     sad turnips
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