Deepwater in 1904 -- Wabash? People

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CLASH BETWEEN GIANT RAILWAY COMPANIES
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NEW ROAD MAY NOT PASS THROUGH ROANOKE
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Deepwater Line Has No Authority to Enter That City Unless Its Charter is Amended -- Other Railroad Gossip.
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    Roanoke, Va., March 2. -- The first clash in Virginia between the Wabash and the Norfolk and Western seems to be threatened.
    The Wabash people have been quietly at work on the southern suburbs of this city for nearly two weeks and apparently the Norfolk and Western people have been paying no attention to their movements.
    It was only apparently though, as was shown yesterday when the Norfolk and Western put two hundred and fifty men to work on the abandoned belt line with all the necessary equipment for railroad building.
    Teams, shovels and everything else needed to get the grading in order for rails were placed on the ground near the Franklin road bridge, and the force went to work in dead earnest to complete the building of the belt line.  Mr. M. Foley, an old experienced track man, has charge of the force.
    In the meantime there are many looking out for the Wabash people to get out an injunction and stop the work, and it is claimed that there is now some question of the rights of the Norfolk and Western in the premises after having abandoned the right of way for years.  The belt railroad was started when Mr. Joseph H. Sands was general manager of the road, with a view of making a connection with the Roanoke and Southern and the main line, with the view of relieving the congestion of freight in the city, and furnish better facilities for handling business for manufacturing plants.  Business was booming at the time and new enterprises were being started and negotiated for, and once decided upon the belt line was graded for nearly the entire distance.  It begins west of the West End furnace, and connects with the Roanoke and Southern, a distance of about three miles.  Business became dull, manufacturing enterprises shut down, and Mr. Sands retired from the position of general manager.  Work was stopped on the line and storms of many winters and summers since that time filled up many of the cuts and washed out the fills.
    It is said it will require about a month to complete the work, if, in the meantime, there is not some kind of litigation.
    In the discussion of the Wabash railroad it has developed that under the charter, they have no authority to enter the city of Roanoke.  The law requires that cities and counties though which a road is to pass must be named in the charter.  If, however the Wabash wishes to come into Roanoke the charter can be easily amended, and then the city would have to give right of way over the streets.  It was stated at the time that the road planned that the most direct route to the coast be gotten without regard to cities or towns.  Questions like that may be settled when the road begins to build or it is known that the promoters have decided to build it.
    The engineers of the Wabash are still in the southern section.  The offices on the seventh floor of the Terry building present a busy scene.  Mr. Elmore remains in charge.
    Mr. S. J. Gray, representing Soosmith [blurred, best estimate] & Co., of New York, who engaged the engineering corps, arrived yesterday and will look after the work.  He like the others has nothing to say in regard to the backers of the road.
    Still, railroad people are firmly convinced that the Wabash people are behind the whole scheme and the Staunton people are simply acting for them.
    If there should be a contest between the Wabash people and the Norfolk and Western people and the Norfolk and Western here it will amount to nothing compared with the fight in the West Virginia mountains that lasted for a year, between the same companies.  It was for the right of way through Widemouth the only gap through which the Deepwater, Tidewater or Wabash people could get out of the wilds.  The Norfolk and Western had a large force of engineers and a construction corps that built short lines in every direction.  Finally the matter got into the courts and the Wabash won.  Out of the mountains, the Virginia charter was obtains and the corps of engineers put in the field.  It is now explained that the reason nothing could be told by the engineers was that they had nothing to tell and the situation is unchanged.  Today it is known to only a few that the Wabash people are backing the new road.
    Speaking of the work on the belt line today a prominent official of the Norfolk and Western stated that the work was commenced on the belt line because it was needed, and it had been planned before it was known the Wabash people were even coming to Roanoke.  He stated that the work would be pushed ahead as rapidly as possible and as soon as the track was laid the trains would run over it.  He further stated that there was no question what ever about the rights of the Norfolk and Western as the company owned the strip on which the grading was made.
    The Wabash people had nothing to say about the belt line move.  Their counsel said he know of no intention to get out an injunction.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
March 3, 1904

[Speaking of rumors, the Belt Line is currently disused, and there are rumors that it might some day be used for short excursions along the Roanoke River.]

Gordon Hamilton
    
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