Virginian in 1908--Winding Gulf work

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
November 19, 1908

PREPARING FOR WORK ON VIRGINIAN CONTRACT
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Twenty-Four Miles of Winding Gulf Route Must be Finished Within Ten Months

    The contractors who secured the contracts for the twenty-four miles of track which is to be laid on the Winding Gulf route of the Virginian railway between Mullins and Pendleton have got large forces of men on the ground preparing for the work.  All of the contracts specify that the work must be finished in September 1909, and all of the firms have laid their plans with that view.  There will be three tunnels on the route, one of which will be 800 feet long while the other two will be 400 and 500 respectively.  The route chosen is a good one with a good grade and there are no bad places in the entire twenty-four miles so far as is known.  The route has not been cross sectioned as yet, but every indication points to a fairly easy job.  All of the contractors will work from both ends and unless the weather gets so bad as to make work impossible there is no reason why it should not be finished within the contract time.
    Camps are being erected and some of the contractors have commenced to bring their laborers.  It is expected that between 2,000 and 2,500 men will be employed on the work, which will take nearly ten months.  As was stated in the Telegraph of Sunday the cost of the work will be about $1,000,000.
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[A 1953 VGN track chart shows Pemberton twenty-four miles from Mullins instead of Pendleton as mentioned in the article.  Comments anyone? The same chart shows the three tunnels to be 229', 416' and 476' respectively.]


Gordon Hamilton
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