On the Road:  Part 5

Before I get started, one more pair of photos from Monday.

Silent Night at Seven Mile Ford Presbyterian Church, 1959

Seven Mile Ford Presbyterian Church, 2012.  The tracks visible in 1959 are now completely swallowed up in trees (out of frame at left).

Tuesday I started on a lot harder task:  finding a railroad that isn’t there any more.  I went searching for the Abingdon branch, a short line that ran from Abingdon, Virginia south and east to West Jefferson, North Carolina.  The line only carried one mixed train (freight and passengers both) down and one up per day, and practically never ran to time; freight loading and unloading took precedence over schedule.  (Think about Petticoat Junction, those of you who are old enough, and you’ll have it about right.)  The train’s poky progress and its winding route together gained it the nickname of the “Virginia Creeper.” Passenger service on the Creeper was discontinued about 1965, freight service was abandoned in 1977, and the railroad finally tore up the tracks in the 1980s, giving part of the former right-of-way to the National Forest Service for a hike-and-bike trail.

Engine 382 passes the freight station at Abingdon, 1957

Abgindon freight station, 2012.  The station has been converted into artists’ working spaces.

Abingdon passenger station, 2012.  Nicely restored, it houses the local historical society.

N&W Class M 4-8-0 (“Mollie”), one of the class of engines that pulled the Creeper until 1957.  It sits today at the head of the Virginia Creeper Trail.

I didn’t get nearly as many pictures as I wanted as I followed the Creeper’s path, because my camera ran out of battery and I didn’t have a spare.  But before it died, I did get pictures of one of the best-known stations along the way—Green Cove, Virginia.  The station at Green Cove was privately owned, not railroad property, and after service was discontinued it remained in the hands of its owners until the Park Service was able to buy it and turn it into a rest stop on the Creeper trail.

Maud bows to the Creeper, 1956

Green Cove station, 2012

Green Cove station/store interior, 1956

Green Cove store interior, 2012.  Some of the store’s original furnishings survive, and shelves have been stocked with representative goods.

#382 pulls out of Green Cove, 1956

Same house, now a B&B, 2012

And that’s all the photos I have for this section.  I’d like to go back one day and look for some places I missed (e.g., Lansing, NC) and with a camera battery that isn’t run down.

Next time:  everyone gets back together and does laundry.