1908 - GREAT IMPROVEMENT

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Roanoke Times - January 29, 1908

GREAT IMPROVEMENT

N. & W. Will Spend $6,000,000 on Road Improvements by June

   It was learned yesterday through an official source that the Norfolk and
Western Railroad Company will have spent by June 30th of the present year
over $6,000,000 on the Pocahontas division alone during the year 1907. This
enormous sum of money has been and is being expended in double-tracking the
line to various points and to a great extent in improving the Bluefield yards.
   Dispatches from Bluefield say that the road has double-tracked the line
for seven miles between Wilmore and Hull. Three miles of double track have
been laid between Vine and Thacker. At Davy the work is being pushed as
fast at the contractors are able to handle it. The same condition exists at
Welch and other points where tunnel work is being done. It is expected that
all the tunnel work will be finished by the 30th of June. At that time the
Norfolk and Western will have eighty-five miles of double track between
Bluefield and Williamson. The distance from Bluefield to Williamson is 107
miles. The double track will assist materially in moving coal and other
freight.
   In Bluefield the road has been pushing work. Improvements on a colossal
scale have been planned. Forty-two miles of track are being constructed in
the yards between Bluefield and Graham. When this work has been finished
there will be over sixty miles of track in the local yard. This work is
being done at a cost of about $4,900,000. Considerable over $1,000,000 of
this amount has been spent already and the balance will be spent before the
30th of June.
   The cost of the work, exclusive of the bridges and deport, which will be
completed by June 30th, is $5,700,000. Two hundred thousand dollars will
cover the cost of improvements to bridges and the depot.
   There have been a number of tunnels constructed and others are in course
of completion. Sidetracks have been installed at a number of points and
hundreds of minor improvements made. At several points block signal systems
have been installed.
   The six millions of dollars will by no means cover all the improvements
which are to be made in this section during the next few months. The
Norfolk and Western will in three years have the best equipped coal
carrying road in the country.

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link