N&W in 1912--Cars handled

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
March 2, 1912

BEST DAILY AVERAGE IN RAILROAD'S HISTORY
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Nearly Fifty Thousand Cars Handled by Norfolk and Western During Short Month of February
    February, 1912, will go down in the history of the Norfolk and Western as the biggest month in the annuls of the road.  During the twenty-nine days a daily average of 1,666 cars were handled by the Pocahontas division at Bluefield and Williamson.  This does not include the cars delivered to the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio, nor the Louisville and Nashville, or other roads in southwest Virginia.
    By actual count 48,314 cars were handled by this division during the month, in spite of car shortages, and the record stands as a monument to the railroad methods in use on the western division of the road.  Some of the western connecting roads have had embargoes against Norfolk and Western coal since the middle of January, while at times all roads have embargoes, and at one time there was an eastern embargo at tidewater due to the frozen condition of the ocean on which boats could not ply because of the blizzards [ frozen ocean?].
    The biggest record for one month by the Pocahontas division is 51,159 cars, but this record was established during a thirty-one day month, so the February record from a daily average standpoint is a better one.
    Every week new coal cars are delivered to the road now, and it is expected that new engine equipment will commence to come from the Roanoke shops by the 15th instant.  The new engine equipment has been under construction at the Roanoke shops for some time, and is a Norfolk and Western product, as are many of the steel coal cars in use on the road, showing the versatility of the management, which expects to do the biggest business in the history of the road during the next few months.
    Weather reports from the west yesterday were not encouraging, blizzard conditions continuing.  Thousands of cars are tied up around Toledo and Detroit and the outlook for the next few days is not exceptionally bright, although cars are being returned from the east as fast as they can be delivered.
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Gordon Hamilton
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