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Location / Name:
Bedford VA, Bedford County
What's Here:
Former N&W Depot, now a restaurant
THE National D-Day Memorial
Data:
GPS Coordinates: as needed
Phone A/C: 540
ZIP: 24523
Access by train/transit:
None, for now
The Scoop:
Bedford is about 28 miles or so east of Roanoke on 460.
It is the home of the National D-Day Memorial.
It is a most impressive memorial and I urge you to take the time and visit it if you are in the Roanoke area. I found it to be well worth the trip.
The second point of interest is an ex N&W railroad station.
As far as signals go, there WERE N&W CPL signals on both ends of town, with a passing siding on the east side of town, signaled in both directions at both ends.... I only had time to take pictures in the one location. Now that the CPL signals have been replaced, I regret that I did not have time to go to both locations, drat. I'm guessing signals were replaced around the time frame as they were in Roanoke, around 2010 or thereabouts.
Amtrak is thinking about extending the "NE Regional" trains to go past Richmond, and all the way to Roanoke. If this happens, Bedford should get a stop.
Acknowledgements:
Denver Todd
Rich Polk
Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
None for now.....
The National D-Day MemorialGPS Coordinates: 37.325865, -79.531372
3 Overlord Cir, Bedford, VA 24523
The National D-Day Memorial dedicates those who lost their lives during WWII on that day. Why Bedford you may ask? Bedford, out of all of the towns of the United States, lost more of it's native sons during the invasion than any other. While it may be a tad out of the way, it's really not that far from Roanoke and well worth the drive.
It is by far, the most impressive memorial I have ever seen, anywhere, period!
The N&W DepotGPS Coordinates: 37.337150, -79.527750
Bedford, VA 24523
What is now the Olde Liberty Station used to be an N&W depot. Back on September 18th of 2009, they had a fire which destroyed a great deal of the structure. My wife and I were there for lunch 3 days before the fire on the way back home from Atlanta, talk about luck. They were closed for about 6 months while they rebuilt, but I understand they lost a great deal of the treasures decorating the station.
Their website is here, but does not contain much history on the depot.
The old N&W CPL SignalsDidn't have enough time to go chasing after the rest of the signals around town :-) This signal is at the eastern end of the passing siding... the high signal is for the right track, the main line, and the lower signal is for the siding. If this was on the B&O, they would have used a dwarf CPL at the base of the mast for the siding.
The new Colorlight SignalsThese pictures are courtesy Rich Polk who visited Bedford recently.
Bedford Fire Station - Company 1
Bedford Municipal Building and Police Headquarters
Restaurants n all around Bedford
Courtesy of the University of Texas Library, click here for their index page.
Disclaimers:
I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an expert. My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page. This is something I have fun with while trying to help others. My webpages are an attempt at putting everything I can find of the subject in one convenient place.
Please Note: Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them. For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.
If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct. Once in a while, an error may creep in :-)
My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented. Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them. If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads. Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.
By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.
Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info is here.
Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.
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Last Modified 20-Jul-2019