1907 - The Virginian Railway

[NW Mailing List]

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