N&W in 1903 -- Rivals

[NW Mailing List]

Generally speaking the railroads would have been fighting for the right-of-way to reach potential traffic and also to keep a rival from encroaching on existing traffic.  Once the right-of way was secured the encroachment issue was settled one way or the other, but until the industry developed that required the right-of-way there was no need to build the railroad. Unless of course the winning railroad was out to take the traffic away.

Alex Schust

--- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 7:25 AM
  Subject: Re: N&W in 1903 -- Rivals


  I always have wondered, if the fight was so intensive, why did they take so long (30 years) to complete these lines?
  Warren Crowther
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: NW Mailing List 
    To: N&W Mailing 1List 
    Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 7:19 PM
    Subject: N&W in 1903 -- Rivals


    FIGHT BETWEEN RIVAL RAILWAYS GROWS INTERESTING
    ------
        The corps of engineers the N. & W. railway company have had at work on the proposed line of railway from Wharncliffe across the country to the mouth of Gilbert creek on Guyan river are still at work and there is every indication that the line will be built.  The fight between the rival companies who are striving for possession of  the upper Guyan coal beds is growing all the time and now threatens to reach the injunction stage, owning to conflicting claims for right of way.  In the meantime the citizens of the coveted district are shaking hands with themselves and making ready to make the most of the opportunities which will be presented when the matter is finally settled.

    Bluefield Daily Telegraph
    August 27, 1903

    [Apparently the N&W's rival would have been the C&O in 1903.  The N&W did build north from Wharncliffe to Gilbert, and the C&O built southward into the same place.  The N&W line was completed in 1933 to provide a western outlet for coal originating on the Virginian's line that was being built at that time down the Guyandot River.]

    Gordon Hamilton


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