The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1937-11-04
SPEEDING UP THE MAIL

One of the biggest assets that Ashe county
has today is the branch line of the Norfolk &
Western railroad.
Before this line was built in the county about
twenty two years ago. this section was practi-
cally isolated from the rest of the world and
travelling in or out of the county, or shipping
commodities to and from our boundaries was
an extremely difficult undertaking and required
a great deal of time. s,s~-<;s"
!, But with the comingEof the railroad, new
day dawned for Ashe, Just as it did for the rest
of the country wherever railroads were built.
Almost overnight the town of West Jefferson
sprung up and for the first time in it's history
the people of the county were able to 60 and
come, to ship and to receive, without having to
spend long days and nights riding on horseback
or in wagons over rough, hazardous mountain
roads
Besides giving the county an outlet both for
its people and its products, the railroad brought
additional wealth and increased the property
valuation in Ashe, thereby providing more tax
es and enriching the county in numerous other
ways.
And today. the, sJeffersons and Ashe county
need the railroad badly, if not more
so, than they did twenty-five years ago. Their
future growth and prosperity are more or less
directly dependent upon the railroad in spite
of the fact that the" highways through this
mountain section of the state have been i'm
proved considerably during recent years.
The railroad is the only meanssof transporta-
ton that is adequate for volume shipments of
cattle, lumber, and various agricultural prod
ucts that are raised or produced in the county
Furthermore, in order to secure industry or
to attract tourists on large scale basis, rail-
road is absolutely Indispensable
Realizing all of this and realizing further that
it would be difficult if not impossible for star
route service to provide, with the highways
being as they are today better mail service from
Abingdon or Marion, Virginia, than the train
has been giving, The Skyland Post has been
opposed to the proposed abandonment of the
train mail service and the establishment of the
star route : .s'e'is"r xases3sis. <-~'.~
However, we appreciated the fact that at least
seven communities in the county served by the
star routes out of Jeffersonspost Offices were en-
titled to better service and we have strongly
advocated that the railroad should speed up its
train so as to arrive here more or less on sched-
ule time and thereby enable the star routes to
make connections
Last week we were deeply gratifed over the
announcement made by Mr.. j. R. Talbot, sup
erintendent of transportation for the Norfolk
& Western, stating that they would defer all
of the commercial work that they possibly could
on the going trip and perform it on the return
trip, in order to have the train arrive in West
Jefferson as early as possible.
We congratulate the Norfolk g. Western for
this interest in improving the service and hope
that they can work out a schedule whereby the
train will reach here practically every afternoon
by two-thirty o'clock, at least. Now that condi-
tons are improving, we are also wondering if
we it wouldn't pay the railroad to restore its
passenger train service on this line? That would
provide badly needed transportation service
as well as endure more prompt mail delivery
In connection with the county's mail service,
we would like to see the star route from North
Wilkesboro extended to Lansing and this would
enable the people in that section of the county
to get their mail from down-state the same day
it is dispatched from North Wilkesboro.