Thurmond, West Virginia

For more than 80 years, Thurmond’s railroads thrived and played a vital role in the town’s growth and prosperity and in America’s development. The once-bustling town was shaped by steam-era railroading, with water columns filling tenders to make steam for power, sanding towers supplying sand for traction on slippery track, an engine house for servicing and repairing steam engines, and a coaling and sanding station providing coal for fuel and storing sand for transfer. Commercial Row housed many town businesses, water tanks stored water pumped from the river, and the railroad commissary supplied workers with necessities such as meat, clothing, boots, shovels, and hardware, with charges deducted from their pay. The railroad tracks were and still are Thurmond’s main street, and they remained active around 1930.

West Virginia · United States