How do trains from the north and west get to Linwood?

[MKeaton]

According to the Hump Yard Listing, yards at Elkhart, Bellevue, Enola, and Allentown all build and receive trains for Linwood.  I assume the Elkhart and Bellevue trains would come into Roanoke from the west, and the trains from Pennsylvania come into Roanoke down the Shenandoah Valley line.  From Roanoke, how do they reach Linwood?  From Roanoke down to Winston-Salem, then over to Linwood (is that possible??)?  Or would they go to Lynchburg and then down the old Southern main line?

Thanks for any ideas!  Mark Keaton, Ann Arbor, MI

[kbarnett]

They head east from Roanoke on the Virginian and then head south on the Southern at Altavista, VA to Linwood.

[MKeaton]

Big help!   I can see what must be the connection on Google Maps.  Comes down from the south side of the VGN to the west side of the SOU.   Looks like a wide curve.  Does this go back to VGN days or was it added after the N&W-SOU merger?  Thanks!

[NS212]

Trains from Allentown and Enola reach Linwood via Hagerstown down the ex N&W to Front Royal, then east to Manassas, and south to Lynchburg. This entire section is now part of the Harrisburg Division, dispatched by the new Hagerstown Dispatcher out of Harrisburg

[MKeaton]

Thanks!!  I would think northbound trains use the same route, correct?

[NS145]

Big help!   I can see what must be the connection on Google Maps.  Comes down from the south side of the VGN to the west side of the SOU.   Looks like a wide curve.  Does this go back to VGN days or was it added after the N&W-SOU merger?  Thanks!

The Altavista Connection was completed in 1983 after the N&W-SOU merger (source: TRAINS October 1983).