Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 7, 1994 TAG: 9411070018
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Even though the Roanoke Valley no longer has passenger train service, residents and tourists may be able to enjoy the rail lines still - on foot.
A foundation of public officials and private groups is forming, with the hope of creating a walking trail along old rail lines that can be linked to a park at the site of the Battle of Hanging Rock.
With $7,000 in planning money from Roanoke County and Salem, the Hanging Rock Battlefield and Railway Preservation Foundation - which should have its incorporation approval by this week - will begin laying plans.
The project involves tying together three things:
Part of a 1.6-mile Norfolk and Western spur down Kessler Mill Road to Hanging Rock, which years ago was used to deliver coal to Catawba Hospital. The group is looking at the section from Branch Drive north.
Part of the route planned for the Valley Railroad in Salem, which was never built except for some bridges and culverts.
The Hanging Rock Battlefield, located at Virginia 419 and 311, where the Confederate Army won a Civil War battle.
A walking trail would be created on the Catawba Branch right of way and - with landowners' permission - on the land that was to be Valley Railroad. A picnic area would be established at Hanging Rock, and historical markers would be installed to commemorate the battle. The walking trail would run from Craig Avenue in Salem to the battlefield in Roanoke County.
The $7,000 likely will be used to pay an architectural design firm for survey, layout and engineering work for a path and for lighting at Hanging Rock, said Dave Robbins, president-elect of the Salem Historical Society.
The plan is contingent on receiving a federal grant to pay for the project and getting permission from landowners who may not be aware that the Valley Railroad path crosses their land.
"If somebody objects and they don't want it," Robbins said, "we're not going to force that."
Some of the land already has been developed, and "if we don't start now, it's going to be much tougher" in the future, Robbins said. "I don't see any negatives, except for some back yards we may have to work around."
After the group's incorporation papers are approved, attorney Jim Douthat said, members can begin work on the project.
Roanoke County supervisors and Salem city councilmen recently approved money for planning, and each appointed a staff person to the foundation; Salem appropriated $2,000, and Roanoke County, $5,000.
Other groups belonging to the foundation also have pledged money.
The foundation includes representatives from Roanoke County, Salem, Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Roanoke Valley Historical Society and Museum, and Salem Historical Society. The Roanoke chapter of the National Railway Historical Society also is being invited to join.
Unless a federal transportation grant of possibly $150,000 is approved to buy land and put in a parking area, lighting, picnic tables and markers at Hanging Rock, the project won't happen, foundation members told Salem City Council. The deadline for applying for the federal ISTEA grant is Jan. 31, but the foundation may not make that deadline and may have to wait another year, Robbins said.
ISTEA, or the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, requires states to set aside 10 percent of certain federal transportation funds for "transportation enhancement" projects. Preserving abandoned railways, historic preservation and trails for pedestrians and bicycles are listed as potential projects for such grants.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy owns land at Hanging Rock, but there is only one highway marker there commemorating its historical significance. Even with that, "you have to make a hazardous excursion to get to the marker," said Tim Gubala, Roanoke County's economic development director and a member of the foundation.
The Battle of Hanging Rock was a Confederate victory against the Union troops of Maj. Gen. David Hunter, who burned Virginia Military Institute in Lexington before passing through the Roanoke Valley.
The main fighting at Hanging Rock took place where the Orange Market stands today at the intersection of Virginia 419 and 311, Robbins said. He said the foundation would like to involve the businesses at Hanging Rock.
The foundation will have to move fast if it wants to take over the Catawba Branch rail line.
Steve Eisenach, director of strategic planning for Norfolk Southern, said the Catawba Branch will be officially considered abandoned by the Interstate Commerce Commission on Nov. 23. Any group wanting a "public use" condition imposed on the abandonment - which would allow the right of way to be used for a trail - must file with the ICC by Nov. 14, he said.
In building rail lines, the railroad sometimes buys a right of way and sometimes just gets easements to use the land while a rail line runs there.
If the foundation doesn't file for a public use condition, it would have to acquire the right of way from landowners who gave the railroad easements. But with the condition, landowners' easements could be used for a trail - even though that's not what they gave the easement for.
"That, as you can imagine, has been very contentious through the years," Eisenach said.
As rails-to-trails groups have advocated walkways and bike paths on old rail lines, landowners' groups sometimes have seen that as taking their property. They also are concerned about litter, vandalism and trespassing by people walking through their property.
But the Supreme Court last year upheld trail groups' use of the easements.
Without researching land records, Eisenach said, he doesn't know whether the Catawba Branch right of way belongs to the railroad or is along easements.
Rails-to-trails efforts are picking up speed.
"There's almost not an abandonment we do now that there's not a trail interest," Eisenach said.
The railroad, he said, stays out of any disputes.
The unsuccessful Valley Railroad was developed between 1867 and 1870 to link Salem, Lexington and Harrisonburg. Even with support from Gen. Robert E. Lee, then president of Washington College in Lexington, the railroad never received the funding to do more than build some bridges and culverts. Some can still be seen along Peters Creek Road between Hollins and Salem.
There is no right of way for the railroad - it is all on private land. The foundation would need preservation easements before it could be used. The foundation wants to put the walking trail along Valley Railroad sites between Craig Avenue and Kessler Mill Road in Salem.
by CNB