Radford

Radford is a medium-size city with three industries clustered around a wye in the track. It's the mid-point for the Radford Turn originating at Glen Lyn.

On the left is Scholastic Publishing, which prints textbooks and highschool yearbooks. This industry has three tracks, two of which hold one boxcar apiece inside the building for handling paper products. The third track is for tank cars of printing ink.

New River Safety Supply, on the right, manufacturers fire extinguishers and other safety equipment. It has two tracks, one for carbon dioxide tank cars, and the other for outbound products.

A team track is located on the near side of the wye tail track. This was originally Bellamy Bros. Coal, but I decided that an elevated track that holds one hopper was a waste of space; the team track allows several cars to be spotted. It is laid temporarily with flex track, and the final design may allow for two tracks, one on each side of the loading dock.


This is part of the Radford fascia panel, showing waybill boxes and turnout toggle switches. Mainline turnouts have a red light next to their toggle switch, to indicate when the switch is thrown away from the mainline. Two lights in this photo are on.

Radford fascia panel

The small box with the Radford station sign serves as a town identifier (every town has one) as well as a place for blank bad order forms and off-spot cards.

Beneath the fascia is the Danville panel, with staging yard controls and a box to hold a train register card. The panel is mounted on a drawer that pulls out to reveal slots for each track in the staging yard. See the Roanoke drawer here.