CHASIN' THE 611 - MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2017

Elliston

For the past two month the historic 611 steam locomotive has been pulling excursions in North Carolina and Virginia. The last of these excursions occurred over the Memorial Day Weekend with The Powhatan Run between Roanoke and Radford.  This is one of the shorter but one of the most scenic and most popular routes of the 2017 excursion season. The route takes passengers through Roanoke and Salem before climbing the famed Christiansburg Grade in Elliston and Sahwsville.  One of the most popular sites on the run is the twin tubes of the Montgomery Tunnel, which was made famous through the photography of O. Winston Link.  The train continues through Christiansburg passing the Cambria Depot.

Montgomery Tunnel

From 1868 to early 1950s, the Cambria Depot was the shipping point for all the goods coming into and leaving Montgomery and Floyd Counties, including the Towns of Christiansburg and Blacksburg. Every Sears mail-order house and Wishbook gift; every letter and package; every rug and factory chair and wedding dress sold by the mail order firms from New England to the West Coast; every Model T and Stutz Bearcat; and every secret decoder ring came through the Cambria Depot.

From 1868 until 1906, the Cambria Depot also served as the passenger station, including during the height of immigration. The depot and Cambria welcomed the miners from Wales and Czechoslovakia, farmers from Germany and Ireland, cabinetmakers and home-builders, masons and seamstresses. The languages spoken in the freight-house were as diverse as the last names in the County.

Elliston

In 1906, the Norfolk and Western built a new passenger station on a site east of the old depot and on top of a small spring fed pond (and we wonder why we have stormwater problems), and the old depot was converted to a freight station and a maintenance of ways & engineering office. The new station was built, not because there was a need for a new passenger station per se but because of the political, social, and cultural demands for segregation. The old depot, one of only a couple of pre-segregation depots left in Virginia, could not be segregated because of the configuration of the waiting rooms.

In its heyday, Cambria boasted of five mercantiles and general stores, a china shop, a notions shop, the Phoenix furniture factory, a grocery store, a couple of banks, more than a couple of hardware stores, three mills of various types, a creamery, four hotels, and more than its share of bars, brothels, and pool halls. She also had her share of ugliness-- a history marred by the racial divides made worse by economic woes.

Spring Hollow

Like most railroad towns, Cambria went through a period of decline, resulting in consolidation with a larger neighbor (Christiansburg) in 1965. The construction of Route 11 and Route 8 in the 1930s, increased automobile ownership, and the introduction of truck transport and bus service from Roanoke following the end of World War II spelled the end of Cambria's role as the primary shipping and immigration point for Montgomery County, Floyd County, and eastern Giles County. 

(Source/Credit: VISIT HISTORIC CAMBRIA)

From Christiansburg the excursions continues west passing under the coaling tower at Vicker Switch before arriving in Walton to make the turn and return to Roanoke.

Along the way The Powhatan routes affords you several great Photo opportunities to see the Queen of Steam. Over the three days of the excursion I was lucky enough to get some decent photo and video from West Salem, Spring Hollow (Arthur on the Norfolk Southern Route) The Christiansburg Grade at Shawsville and at Montgomery Tunnel.

Here is the Video from my three day chase. It's not my best work but it is what it is.