N&W in 1908 - Circuit rider

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
January 18, 1908

CIRCUIT RIDER ON RAILROAD
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Unique Transportation Arrangement Perfected on Big Sandy and Twelve Pole.
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    One of the most novel transportation arrangements that has ever been witnessed in this part of the country is now seen in the Big Sandy and Twelve Pole valleys, traversed by the Norfolk & Western Railway.  The two lines of this railway, one sixty-eight miles in length, the other seventy-five, traverse the Big Sandy and Twelve Pole valleys, running on parallel lines through Wayne and Mingo counties.  Up until the past week a local freight train has been assigned to the accommodations of the business of each of the two lines.  But after business became slack a few weeks ago it was determined to employ some means by which one of these trains, neither of which more than met operating expenses, might be cut off.  Finally the problem was solved in this way:  The regular Big Sandy local was discontinued, and the Twelve Pole valley local was transformed into what is now known as the "circuit rider."  This train now leaves Kenova every morning at 7 o'clock, touches at all business points on the old Twelve Pole valley line between Kenova and Naugatuck, and returns down the Big Sandy line by way of Warfield and Fort Gay, arriving at Kenova late in the afternoon, the hour being determined by the amount of traffic encountered on the way.  Freight destined for Fort Gay, twenty-five miles out of Kenova, is carried round the circuit 118 miles.
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Gordon Hamilton
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