STANLEY
BELOW: “Ghost Town,” February 1, 1957 (NW1345). LEFT: The main street in Stanley, Virginia, just south of Luray on U.S. Business Route 340, looks about the same as it did 50 years ago. Link’s “Ghost Town” name for Stanley is still quite true if you visit the small town after 9:00 p.m.
1955, where he re-shot the scene with more people on the platform and more flashbulbs to light the engine, the de- pot, and surrounding buildings and features.
In the 50 years since Link completed his project to record “the last steam railroad in America,” the rural country he captured has changed in countless ways. However, many of the sites Link photographed are available to the rail- fan explorer today. It’s not too late to assemble a collection of then-and-now photos to commemorate the ground- breaking work of O. Winston Link. In the town of Luray, north of Waynes-
boro, can be found two other sites made famous by Link’s lens. A block or two east of the center of town is the grade crossing with the grain elevator. The picturesque elevated crossing guard shack has been removed, although you can find the foundation at trackside if you look. The grain elevator has under- gone some alterations, but the feel of
the scene is un- changed (if you visit after dark!). Three or four blocks south of the crossing are the bridges over Hawksbill
Creek, where Link pho-
tographed the kids wading and splash- ing and the big N&W Mallet rolling silently overhead. A newer highway bridge has replaced the one in the
Link photo.
A few miles south of Luray is the town of Stanley. Here, in January 1957, Link photographed the empty street, the patrolman, and a Y6 Mallet
SEVEN-MILE FORD
LEFT: “Christmas Time At Seven-Mile Ford, Virginia,” December 28, 1957 (NW1637). ABOVE: The stone arch survives into the present day. While it appeared in the Link shot that this was a stone arch bridge, as can be seen here it is actually an abutment to a deck girder bridge.
40 MAY 2012 •
RAILFAN.COM
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