N&W in 1904 -- Belt Line

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WILL FINISH BELT LINE TOMORROW
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    Roanoke, Va., March 5. -- The Norfolk and Western will doubtless complete the belt line by Monday at noon and trains will be running over the road sometime that afternoon.  They are working from 500 to 600 laborers.  The work of putting in a small bridge near the old narrow guage [sic] bridge has been their chief delay.  A great legal battle is expected to be fought on the 14th. when the attorneys for the Tidewater Railway company will apply to Judge Wood for an injunction.  It is expected that many developments in regard to the purposes and plans of the new company will be made known in court that day.  The Norfolk and Western evidently feel sure of their position, for the reason that they absolutely ignored the notice served on them Thursday evening by Sergeant Tillett.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
March 6, 1904

[The bridge referred to in the article is certainly the one across Murray Run where that stream joins the Roanoke River.  The narrow gauge railroad originally extended from the Rorer Iron Company's Gale mine in the Southern Hills area, which is generally behind the present-day Wal-Mart on Franklin Road (US 220), some five miles to a transfer station on the south side of the N&W's yard in the vicinity of 12th St. SW. After the Roanoke & Southern Railway was completed in 1892, an ore washer and transfer station were built alongside the R&S, and the narrow gauge line north of there was abandoned.  The attached post card, courtesy of Abram Burnette, shows the Virginian Railway and the narrow gauge bridge over the Roanoke River after the narrow gauge railroad ceased using it.  The right-hand end of the bridge is about where the north end of the Wasena Bridge is today.  The large crescent-shaped piece of land to the left is the location of the Roanoke Transportation Museum before the floor of 1985 forced the move to the N&W freight station.  The curved line of vegetation to the left of the museum site denotes the N&W's Belt Line.  The amount of construction required for the Virginian to build along the high land on the north side of the river should be obvious, and it should be obvious why the Tidewater would have preferred to build along the south side of the river, but was prevented from doing so by the N&W and its belt line right-of-way.]

Gordon Hamilton
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