NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 43, Issue 17 - N&W in 1909 - Improvements

[NW Mailing List]

It's ironic that according to my records, exactly 50 years ago today, May 
11, 1959, the eastward main track between MP N-642 and Lunbeck was taken out 
of service, thus severing a 10-mile section of double track on the Columbus 
District.  On the next day, the 12th, a new switch was placed in service at 
the end of double track at MP N-642, and the westbound local was the first 
train over it.  The old westward main then became the remaining single track 
between there and Lunbeck, with train movements controlled by CTC.  Needless 
to say, the Columbus District was never the same afterward, with a 10-mile 
bottlneck in the middle of an otherwise high-capacity double-track district.

Louis Newton
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>   1. N&W in 1909--Improvements (NW Mailing List)

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> Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 11:26:55 -0400

> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: N&W in 1909--Improvements

> To: "3N&W Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

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> Bluefield Daily Telegraph

> September 1, 1909

>

> DOUBLE TRACK FROM COLUMBUS TO SEA

> ------

> Norfolk and Western Also Regrading Road and Making Improvements and 

> Extensions

>

>    Sunday's Columbus Dispatch had its front page embellished with about a 

> dozen cuts showing the Norfolk and Western double track work between 

> Portsmouth and Columbus.  Accompanying the picture was the following 

> article:

>    "The busy scenes pictured in the accompanying illustrations show how 

> the Norfolk and Western railroad is working to double track and regrade 

> its road in Ohio.  The central part of the work now is being done north of 

> Asheville and from there it is being pushed south toward Chillicothe. 

> When the work has gone that far the Norfolk and Western will have 

> practically a double track from Columbus to the sea.

>    "All of the 707 miles from Columbus to Norfolk has been practically 

> double tracked and firmly reballasted except that portion in Ohio between 

> Columbus and Chillicothe.  When work was begun in Ohio it started at 

> Portsmouth and went north to Chillicothe.  Now it is being started near 

> Columbus and pushed south.

>    "The huge task of double-tracking has been going on for the last five 

> or six years.  Thousands of men have been employed and millions of dollars 

> have been spent.  Within the next year or two the entire plant of track 

> rehabilitation will have been complete.  This will include the laying of 

> additional track and new heavy rail in Ohio and other places where 

> temporarily spurs and switches are taking the place of a solid double 

> track. The ultimate idea is to have an actual double track all the way to 

> the sea.

>    "During the course of the work hundreds upon hundreds of southern 

> negroes and swarms of foreign laborers are being employed.

>    "The double-tracking is only a part of the new plans of this road.  The 

> latest project of the management is to build an eighty-mile spur from 

> Winston-Salem, N. C., to Wadesboro, N. C.  This will connect at the latter 

> point with the Atlantic coast line [sic] and thus tap directly the rich 

> mining fields of the southern district which owes much of its 

> underdevelopment to lack of transportation.  This spur is to be begun in 

> the very near future.  [This was to become the Winston-Salem Southbound 

> Railway.]

>    "In the meantime there is further immense railroad activity in the rich 

> mining regions of West Virginia, North and South Carolina and Virginia. 

> The Clinchfield, Carolina & Ohio road, controlled by the Cumberland 

> Syndicate of New York, already runs from Dante, Va., to Bostic, N. C., a 

> distance of 212 miles.  It goes through the heart of the big mining and 

> cotton territory.  The important thing, however, is that the same road is 

> to be extended south to Spartanburg, S. C., (and eventually to Charleston) 

> and north to Elkhorn, Ky., making a total mileage of 284.  At Elkhorn the 

> prospective extension can make connections with the Chesapeake & Ohio and 

> thus gain access to the north through Cincinnati.  However, other more 

> direct plans are being discussed whereby the Clinchfield road may reach 

> the lakes, but none has been finally adopted.  When the Clinchfield road 

> is extended it can reach the sea by connecting at Spartanburg with the 

> Seaboard Air Line.  Its plan is thus to reac

> h from the lakes to the sea.

>    "The importance of this can be seen in the fact that the Clinchfield 

> coal people plan after this year to place 2,000,000 tons of coal annually 

> on the market.  Also the road will open up a direct route through the 

> mountains from Ohio to the heart of South Carolina.  It might not be far 

> fetched to say that it may mean the nucleus for a great line from the coal 

> and cotton fields of the south to the great lake region."

> ------

> [So, it was not just the small Bluefield newspaper that speculated on 

> railroad matters back in those days.]

>

> Gordon Hamilton

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