Thanks, Rick, great information! Very helpful. I agree fully on moving structures, and not just a few miles. The Crisman tank on the GSL&P was moved to St Elmo, among other big moves. Moving that telegraph office back a dozen feet had to be a no-brainer for the B&B crew.
I know the stone section house shows in an 1896 photo with the roof collapsing. Since seeing the section and bunk house annotations in the 1886 B&N book I had been theorizing that the stone building was out of use either because of some physical issue or simply because it was too difficult to maintain compared to consolidating things into the engine shed. At a minimum it seems likely it was going out of use after 1890 and deferred maintenance probably followed in the years to 1895. It really seems they were doing their best to put everything into one warm space in 1890, except the telegraph office. That 1894 annotation furthers the case of the stone structure possibly being out of use by winter 1890.
It's interesting to see that telegraph structure in D&LG-era photos but it is one of 3 small frame structures at that spot during DL&G days--the Woodstock bunk house turned telegraph office (per 1886 B&B annotation), a similar-sized peak-roofed wood structure next to it that I'd taken to be a section house and a slope-roofed rough structure with chimney stack that I couldn''t identify. With your notes above, the two other buildings seem likely to be the small storehouse and wash house referenced. The ex-Woodstock bunk house is a near twin for those at Quartz, Pitkin, Ohio and Parlins as far as I can tell--except one of them was listed at 14x30, not 14x20.
The 1886 annotations regarding the bunk house and section house being built in the engine shed, I've seen references to partitioning off the interior for these but little else except the footprints given in the annotations of that B&B book. Something struck me about those footprints, a very long-shot idea: the dimensions are not far off of 1) a pair of boxcars connected side-by-side into a unit and 2) 4 boxcars set into a rectangle. No idea if boxcars formed any of the core of those structures but the footprint and availability of worn-out or unused stock have me wondering.
It is after the tunnel reopening that we suddenly see the exterior tall windows along the engine shed sides having the upper halves boarded off. This is a mystery to me--why cut the light? Warmth?
Finally, thanks for the date on the Sherrod station. I'd wondered if it happened just after 1910 but that notation pushes it way back, to just months after that boom busted.
Thanks again for all this information!
Dave Eggleston
Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2020 05:45PM by degg13.
