I'm not much of a railroadiana collector - a few timetables and passes, no hardware. But back in 1977 when the Southern Railway station in my hometown was torn down, we scavengers found some old circa-1880s AGS paperwork that had been stuffed somewhere (probably fell between the walls)

I came across these as we were putting up the holiday decorations and thought I'd post them here.





I don't know what distinguished a regular ticket from this "special ticket." Maybe this was only good on a special train; maybe "continuous" (no stopovers) is the key. (Hulls, Alabama, is south of Tuscaloosa; Cuba, Alabama, is near the Mississippi border.)



Boligee, Alabama, was 10 miles way.





Now this I found interesting. AGS did not connect to the N&W. (There were 240 miles of ETV&G trackage between Chattanooga and Bristol.) Yet here is a ticket from the AGS, printed specifically for stations on a segment of the N&W. (Was there a similar ticket for Bristol to Christiansburg, Cloverdale to Hagerstown, etc.? What about the stations of the ETV&G, Illinois Central, etc.?)

Not to mention the old place names like Gish's (presumably Vinton), Buford's (Montvale?), and Liberty (Bedford?).

Finally, a shot of the station in question shortly before it was torn down.



The white waiting room (this end of the building) was storage for the T&S department (Mr. Latham). The "colored" waiting room, on the other side of the agent's office, served all passengers.

JAC

John, You presumed correctly on the N&W place names. I grew up in "Liberty", and my house is about a mile from "Gish's". I can't begin to count how many times I've passed through "Buford's". "Big Spring" is probably Elliston.