N&W in 1904 -- First Train

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VIRGINIA TOWN ENJOYS FIRST TRAIN
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    Thursday marked an event in the history of the town of Blacksburg which will not soon be forgotten, and also records another rapid stride in the development of the mineral wealth of that section.  The Virginia Anthracite Coal and Railway company ran its first passenger train into Blacksburg and formally opened its line for the transaction of business.
    As far back as sometime in the fifties a charter was obtained for a road from Christiansburg depot to Blacksburg and from that time to this various plans have been formulating under numerous charters for the construction of a railroad, but all these amounted to nothing.  In the spring of 1902 the attention of Mr. W. J. Payne, of Richmond, was directed to the coal fields on the Price and Brush mountains in that county, a new charter was obtained for a railroad and it soon became manifest that the enterprise had at last fallen into the hands of one who would bring it to a successful conclusion.  After the tedious delays incident to preparing rights of way, on the 11th day of November, 1902, the work of construction was begun, and the road completed to the mines in April 1903.  These mines had been operated in a crude way for a number of years, but under the new management, the most approved and up to date methods were inaugurated.  A large breaker with a capacity of 600 tons per day has been erected and is now in successful operation.  This breaker is constructed after the latest patterns, and produces seven sizes of coal, equal to the Pennsylvania standard.  All the machinery, appliances and equipments about the mines were selected by and put in place under the supervision of Mr. J. R. Wilson, the general manager, an educated and experienced mining engineer from the Pennsylvania fields.
    The output at the present time is rather small owing to difficulty in procuring suitable miners.  The company is now working fifty miners and will increase the number as rapidly as possible to four times as many so as be to enabled to meet the demand for the coal which cannot now be supplied.
    The citizens of Blacksburg were so earnest and insistent in their entreaties that the road should be completed to their town that the management finally determined to do so, and on the 11th day of June, 1904, work was commenced on the extension, and the rails laid into the town the 7th of this month.
    The first train approaching Blacksburg awakened the echoes as well as the natives by a prolonged whistle from the locomotive, and amid the waving of handkerchiefs and other manifestations of delight from a large crown which had assembled, the train pulled up to the temporary station.
    Only those who are compelled to travel the nine miles of almost impassable mountain road, during the cold bleak, dreary winter months can fully appreciate what the opening of this new road means.
    Convenient schedules will be arranged so that passengers by the Norfolk and Western train can make close connection to and from Blacksburg.
    The Virginia Anthracite Coal Company owns very valuable coal lands on the Brush mountain, and it is only a question of time when the road will be extended so as to open up those fields and bring into the market a quantity of coal that cannot be surpassed for domestic purposes.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
September 17, 1904

[This line became the N&W's Blacksburg Branch in early 1912] 

Gordon Hamilton
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