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| Alleghany Station looking west. Photo by Bob Rodriguez |
The turn of the 20th century Alleghany was a thriving mountain
community and a gateway to several of western Virginia's famed mineral
springs resorts. Period photographs show many railroad, as well as privately owned structures, including a hotel. Alleghany's
importance as a passenger stop reached its peak during this time. Up to six passenger trains regularly stopped with the name
trains stopping on the flag. Passenger service was curtailed to locals by the time of the Great Depression. Alleghany was
downgraded to a flag stop in the 1950s with the last passenger train stopping in October 1958. Station agents remained on
duty until 1962.
| Alleghany Station looking northeast |
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| Photo by B.F. Cutler, COHS Collection |
There
were two station buildings constructed at Alleghany. The first station, built in 1869, was destroyed by fire.
The second building, as depicted on this page, was constructed in 1914 and lasted until it was razed in 1972. The
depot was built to C&O's then standard station design -- or at least as close to the "standard" that any of the C&O's
stations were ever built (a similar building was also built at Prince, West Virginia). The station was relocated several
hundred feet to the east in 1928.
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| Photo by Bernie Kempinski |
The HO Station
The HO station was scratch-built from
plans that were drawn by Ron Piskor for the book, Alleghany With An A, by John C. Paton (published by the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society). This was an excellent "first project" in that the building is very simple. None of the filigree or ornamentation found
in some of the earlier (and, perhaps, more attractive) C&O stations was included on this structure. Essentially, the station is
a simple rectangular box made from Evergreen Scale Models sheet styrene with commercial windows. The most time consuming aspect
of the project was in cutting and applying the white trim boards.
Choosing a suitable grey color was a bit of a mystery, one that
was not resolved at the time the model was built. Color photographs, of course,
are not necessarily reliable sources of information in determining the accuracy of color. Since then, however, Tod Hanger,
of the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society, has done an excellent job of researching the colors used by the C&O on its stations as a result of his work in conjunction
with the restoration of the C&O station at Alderson, West Virginia. COHS offers these colors for sale through the Society's retail
outlet, Chessie's Shop.
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