Virginian in 1907 -- First passenger train

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
September 19, 1907

FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN OVER VIRGINIAN
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Interesting Gossip Concerning the New Coal Carrying Line That Pierces This County
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NEW TOWNS SPRING UP ALONG ITS LINE
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    Norfolk, Va., Sept. 18.--The Virginian railway sent out yesterday the first passenger train ever run over its road.  Mixed trains have been running some weeks, but the inauguration of a first-class passenger service dates from yesterday morning at 8 o'clock [Note comment below this article.], when several officials of the system, accompanied by a few guests, went out over the line to Victoria, Lunenburg county, Va., the site of the new division shops of the system and evidently destined to soon be a town of importance.
    Under the new schedule, which became effective yesterday, a train will leave Norfolk daily at 8 a. m. from the foot of East Main street, this city, arriving at Victoria at 1:30 p.m.  It will leave Victoria, returning at 3:30 p. m., and arrive at Norfolk at 9 p. m.  The roadbed and the rolling stock are first class and there was yesterday no dust or dirt flying.  It is a remarkably clean road.
    Experts say that there is no other road like it.  It was built with a view to making it as straight as possible and with the lightest grade.   Things of which those who know marvel have been accomplished.  The maximum grade westward from Sewell's Point, on Norfolk harbor, the Atlantic coast terminal of the line, to the foot of the Blue Ridge, is but six-tenths of one per cent.  It is eastward, in the direction the heavy haul is, only two-tenth of one per cent.
    A locomotive of ordinary power will haul from West Virginia to Norfolk a train of eighty cars, each of 50,000 pounds capacity, a total load of 4,000 tons of coal [Does not compute.  Obviously the capacity should have been given as 50 tons because H. Reid's book mentions 1907 train make-up of 100,000 pound Deepwater hoppers.].  Heretofore fifty-five cars has been considered a good big load, and on roads of the usual grade a pusher or extra locomotive has been necessary to help the pulling of one over the hills, of which there are many upon such roads.
    The Virginian's eighty car trains will need help only at two points between Princeton, W. Va., where they are made up in the great "collecting yard," and the coal piers at Sewell's Point.  These places are a three mile stretch just this side of [east of] Princeton, and another where the line crosses the Blue Ridge [No; the Allegheny] mountain chain.  The maximum grade in West Virginia, even, is two and one half per cent.
    The Virginian connects with the Seaboard Air Line at Alberta and with the Atlantic Coast Line at Jarrett.  Freight and passengers to and from Richmond will be exchanged with the A. C. L. at Jarrett.  Alberta, about sixty miles from Richmond, will be the main interchange point with the S. A. L.
    In the flat country in the vicinity of Norfolk where long cuts were made to get the desired grade for the Virginian, the water drained into the cuts and gave trouble.  Chief Engineer Fernstrom corrected this by hauling sea sand from Sewell's Point and dumping it in the cuts where the track was to be laid.  This sand acted as a filter; the water passed through it and left a good roadbed.  Now rock is being hauled down the line and eight  inches of crushed granite ballast will be under the ties all along the line.  Much of the road is already rock ballasted.  Incidentally, the big brick freight depot at Norfolk will be completed and occupied October 1.  In the sand from Sewell's Point many bullets and other relics of the Civil War outcropped.
    All along the line new stations are being built.  They are remarkably fine buildings.  They are painted orange and white and are very attractive.  It is a wonderful sight that of a country which has been without railway facilities as much as that has been through which the Virginian passes, being given that which was so much needed and giving it the best.  Great development must follow.
    At Victoria, the new city, an immense amount of work is being done in preparation for the new shops and kindred work.  The size of the station and other signs show beyond peradventure that the company means to do much for the place and to build it to substantial proportions.
    The train which went east yesterday bearing in the orange colored coaches a considerable number of passengers and Vice President and General Manager Raymond Du Puy's car tagged on behind.  In this the guests rode and they were entertained with much art and courtesy.  Those aboard were General Freight and Passenger Agent S. M. Adsit, General Superintendent George Reith, Industrial Commissioner of Norfolk Board of Trade, J. A. Hall, John E. Maxwell of the Ledger-Dispatch staff and Mrs. Maxwell.
    The Virginian sent nine passenger coaches up the line last night to Victoria and brought down to Norfolk as excursion including perhaps 600 folks from various points along the line.  A low rate was made and the tickets are good for a week.  This was done in order to accommodate the people up the road and to benefit Norfolk as much as possible.

[This article reports September 17 as the date of the first non-mixed passenger train on the Virginian, and H. Reid's book lists August 5 for the first mixed train Victoria to Norfolk.  But, there were earlier passenger trains on the west end as revealed by a Bluefield Daily Telegraph article posted here earlier stating that passenger trains began operating between Deepwater and Matoaka on July 1.
Incidentally, the Norfolk newspaper reported who wrote the article reproduced above will not receive a Pulitzer Prize for his awkward sentence construction in numerous places..
Incidentally the second time, were Virginian stations painted orange and white in later years?]

Gordon Hamilton
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