Green Cove Station

Today's picture features Green Cove Station, one of the most popular stops on the Virginia Creeper Trail. Back in the days when the Virginia Creeper steamed its way up and down the Abingdon Branch of the Norfolk & Western Railroad between Abingdon, Virginia and the North Carolina line, there were several train stations along the way where passengers could get on or off the train. The Green Cove Station was one of the busiest on the line.

In 1955, New York photographer O. Winston Link began what would become a five year personal mission of photographing Norfolk & Western steam locomotives. Over the course of those five years, he made at least 20 trips (spending at least 10 days each time) to various N&W train stations capturing stunning stop-motion images of the trains as they pulled into the stations - and most of those images were taken at night using a complex array of flashbulbs of his own design synchronized with his camera's shutter!
"Maud' Bows To The Virginia Creeper"

In October 1956, Green Cove Station became an icon of the steam locomotive era when Link took the now world-famous photo "'Maud' Bows To The Virginia Creeper". This wonderful photo was featured in the 1987 publication "Steam, Steel, & Stars" as well as the 1995 classic "The Last Steam Railroad In America". It also hangs on the walls of countless homes and businesses all across America!

The super-talented O. Winston Link passed away in 2001 at the age of 86.

The lonesome whistle of the Virginia Creeper no longer echoes through the hills and valleys of southwestern Virginia, but historic Green Cove Station is still in use today - by the U.S. Forest Service as a popular rest stop on the heavily-used Virginia Creeper trail.

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