1907 - The Virginian Railway

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Thu Sep 27 23:04:06 EDT 2007


Roanoke Times - September 28, 1907

THE VIRGINIAN RAILWAY

Trains Will Soon Be in Operation on Entire Line

Baltimore, Md., Sept. 27 - The Manufacturers' Record publishes a
special dispatch from West Virginia giving an interview with Major W.
N. Page, president of H. H. Rogers' Virginian railway, in which he says:

"The Virginian railway will be built according to original plans,
and will be in operation between Deepwater, W. Va., and Sewell's
Point by April or May of next year, the time originally names."
This was the prompt and unqualified declaration of Major W. N.
Page, of Ansted, who has been identified with the enterprise from its
inception as engineer and president of the temporary organizations in
West Virginia and Virginia -- the Deepwater and the Tidewater
Railroad companies -- and who is unquestionably as closely in touch
with the plans of H. H. Rogers, long known to be the chief backer of
the enterprise, as any man in the country.
Major Page had been asked about the foundations for the reports
printed in some of the eastern newspapers to the effect that recent
difficulties in marketing securities and obtaining money for
construction purposes and seriously embarrassed Mr. Rogers and that
even now the completion of the road was regarded as problematical. In
answer to this Major Page said:
"I know nothing about these matters other than what I have seen in
the newspapers. I regard it simply as newspaper talk. We are going
right ahead with the construction of the road. We have 290 out of the
443 miles laid with track, the work of construction is proceeding
without delay, and the while line from Deepwater to tidewater will be
finished by April or May of next year."
Asked about the plans for an extension of the line to the Lakes,
which is the ultimate object of the builders, the enterprise having
been designed to provide an entirely new and altogether superior road
from the Lakes to the sea. Major Page said that no announcement of
plans as to the construction of that end of the line was ready to be
made yet. That this part of the project will be carried out at the
earliest favorable moment, however, no one who has talked with Mr.
Rogers can doubt, as it was his appreciation long ago of the need for
more rails between the Lakes and the sea that led him to take up the
enterprise.
Built to a remarkable low grade, constructed in a conspicuously
substantial manner, and making a shortcut from starting point to
destination, without reference to the towns and cities along the
route, this railroad is one of the most notable achievements in
railroad construction in all history. Without asking a dollar of
public subscription or offering a bond or stock for sale, the
remarkable work was inaugurated, and has been carried on in that way.
It is felt to be of the utmost importance to the development of
sections of West Virginia and Virginia rich in mineral resources that
the Rogers road shall be completed, and the authoritative
announcement that there will be no let up or interference with
original plans will be received with great satisfaction all through
the region affected. The splendid coals of the New River fields will
be seen in markets where they are now unknown, on the completion of
the new road, and there will be an outlet for the Kanawha coals as
well that should be greatly extend the market and add to the
prosperity of all this section. To Rogers, the organizer, builder and
developer, there is an obligation of appreciation if not a debt of
gratitude acknowledged by the people of the Virginias who will be so
largely benefited by the construction of his road, and the hope is
expressed that no financial complications or physical infirmities
will be prevent him from carrying out, under his own direction, the
full development of the great enterprise he has inaugurated.

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link





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