My goal is to provide a single location to capture information, anecdotes and old photographs of the people and rail cars that traveled this storied line around the time of Wendell's death in 1938. With luck it will evolve into something much more.

The primary connection N&W had from the Southeast to the Northeast was from Roanoke, VA to Hagerstown, MD. This important line provided both freight and passenger service with stations along the scenic route in Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. It remains in operation today.

Usually a five car passenger train traversed this line.  Train no. 2, and its southbound counterpart train no. 1, were nifty little passenger trains, providing a full range of services in what was usually just a baggage car, Railway Post Office (PRO), 60-passenger all steel coach, an air-conditioned Pullman-Standard 10-6 Sleeper car and diner car. The baggage, RPO and coach went only as far as Hagerstown;  The sleeper went through to New York, and the diner was dropped northbound (and added southbound ) at Shenandoah.  A two man diner crew, a chef and waiter-in-charge, were usually sufficient to serve the few meals required on that little train. The diner served dinner out of Roanoke northbound, and breakfast into Roanoke, southbound.

There was a time when only about 4 trains a day ran between Hagerstown and Shenandoah on the N&W Shenandoah Line.  Today this number is 20-25 a day and rising.