Village of St. John and St John Junction

The Village of St. John is the first town north of Sallytoon.  It is named in honor of Dr. Miles E. (Gene) St. John of the C&GRR. Located at St. John is the St. John Rail Junction (SJ) with tracks to Esther and Sallytoon.  The Village boasts a population of about 359 (except on Saturday night).  There's a passenger station, freight house, several taverns, a barber shop, a sign shop and an auto repair garage specializing in body work.  St. John has a busy milk platform and the SV has twice daily scheduled milk pickup for the creameries at Binghamburg and Billsgate.  Hotel St. John offers rooms by the day, week or hour and some say there's a branch of Lulu's House of Spiritual Enlightenment operating there. 

St. John has two major industries: McGuirk Sand and Gravel Company and Johnstone Hardwood Mills - Sones Wholesale Lumber Company.  These industries create significant rail traffic at St. John.  McGuirk Sand and Gravel, Inc. owners are Judy and Len McGuirk of El Paso, Texas. Johnstone Hardwood Mills was established by Marjorie and Paul Johnstone in 1931 and later managed by their daughter, Marjorie Johnstone Andrews.

Gene St. John is the namesake for St. John Junction. Gene was a friend, inspiration and mentor for the SVRR. Gene operated a huge layout in Waverly, NY: Carolsburg and Genesville (C&G). The layout was 70 x 35 and employed up to 30 operators during train sessions.

Some Photos of St John Junction and Industries

At the south end of the Johnstone facility, the Railroad has a flag stop for Johnstone employees	A gas electric and 2 RDCs meet at St John Junction. The gas electric will proceed north; the RDCs are enroute south	Johnstone Hardwood Lumber at St John Junction, produces both rough cut and finished lumber, co-located with Sones Lumber
General view of Johnstone Lumber looking north	Hardwood logs are brought into Johnstone pond on log flatcars. They are dumped, pulled onto a conveyor and run through a bark stripper. You can see logs with bark going in and stripped logs coming out	This is St John Junction with a LV GP7 holding the siding heading south. The station is to the left and the freight station behind the 2 boxcars
Wood scraps and wood chips are collected and sent to Chico Mills for paper manufacturer. Finished lumber is loaded and shipped all over the Country	Sones Lumber is co-located with Johnstone for finished lumber sales	A northbound Keays Coal Company train with 2 RS3s on the point passing the station area
El Guapo Coal operates at St John-Spikerton, shipping coal to the northeast connections	Everyday except Sunday, El Guapo ships 15 loads. This photo looks along the main track northbound. The items between the tracks are car pullers, manned by their crew	McGuirk Sand and Gravel is a major operation at St John. They ship daily, mostly to the northeast connections
This is the Village of St John, looking west into the hills. The tower is to the right with the freight station across the tracks	A Stonefield Valley GP7 passes through St John with a peddler freight. A C&O GP7 is on the siding for this meet	After the SVRR train passes, the C&O freight leaves St John
The St John Junction freight house is alive with stuff to move - both north and south. The next peddler freight will pick it up	RDCs southbound at the station. Looking west across the Johnstone Hardwood log pond, log flats have just delivered a load of hardwood logs. The water tower is left from the steam days	A RDC northbound has stopped at St John on the main track.  The light-colored object sticking up above the RDC is the water tank spout behind the RDC
Cec's Barber shop is an exact copy of Cec's in Decatur in the 40s and 50s. Molly Hoopnoodle was borrowed from Mark Twain.	A general view looking southwest	More Manvell Wine on the move