N&W in 1909--Clinch Valley rails

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
January 24, 1909

News of the Clinch
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    Honaker, Va., Jan. 23 (Special)--On the first of February the Norfolk and Western will commence the work of laying eighty-pound steel from this place east.  This is made necessary in order to use the large type of engines on the Clinch Valley for heavy coal traffic.
    A force of men have been engaged in replacing trestle work with iron bridges on the Blackford branch of the Norfolk and Western.  A large amount of lumber is hauled over this branch line.
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[The remainder of this column was about non-railroad matters and is omitted here.  Apparently the first paragraph above pertains to the Clinch Valley main line whereas the second paragraph pertains to what was known in later years as the Honaker Branch.  Eighty-pound (to the yard) rail sounds quaint today for a main line, but eighty-five was the standard then as shown by the attached table from the N&W Annual Report for fiscal year ending June 30, 1908.  It's likely that the rail being laid was actually eighty-five pound rail.]

Gordon Hamilton
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