Virginian in 1909--Winding Gulf

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CONTRACT IS LET FOR TEN MILES OF ROAD
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Raleigh Maintains Lead Among Counties of the State for Construction Work

    Raleigh county still maintains her lead among the counties of the state for railroad construction work.  More mileage is now in the course of construction in that county than in any other, and a contract was let the other day that increases the present mileage by ten miles.
    The Raleigh & Southwestern let to contact the building of ten miles on the Winding Gulf.  These contracts were made at Richmond, Virginian, and  Johnson & Briggs and C. E. Langhorne [Microfilm blurred.  Best interpretation shown.] were the successful bidders, the former securing six miles of the work and the latter four miles.  Both the firm of Johnson & Briggs and Mr. Langthorne have work on the Winding Gulf on the Virginian and the Raleigh & Southwestern railways.
    The Raleigh & Southwestern has already five miles of road on the Winding Gulf in process of construction beginning at Pemberton where the Winding Gulf branch of this road connects with the main line of this road on Piney River.  This five miles of road is now, for the most part, ready for the rails.  One long tunnel remains to be completed and then the track laying will begin.
    The ten miles recently let to contract will extend from the end of the five mile stretch referred to, to the mouth of Tommy's Creek on Guyan river.  This will leave seven or eight miles intervening between Tommy's Creek and Mullins.  The right-of-way has been secured through the most of this territory and in time this piece of work will be let to contract.  The work already constructed for and the location of the remainder of the way to Mullins parallels the line of the Virginian from Mullins to Pemberton.
    It was at one time thought that the Chesapeake & Ohio had been completely shut out of the Guyan valley when the suit over the Jenny's Gap tunnel resulted adversely to this road and in favor of the Virginian.  Such, however, has proven not to be the case.  The Raleigh & Southwestern is known to be under the control of the Chesapeake & Ohio, and while the Slab Fork location was lost and much construction work rendered unavailable by the determination of the suit referred to, entailing great monetary loss, the Chesapeake and Ohio has lost no opportunity of effecting an entrance to the Guyan valley, from the east, and the successful culmination of her efforts is marked by the achievements of the Raleigh & Southwestern.
    In the end this road has probably gained by the loss of the Jenny's Gap route.  This route was the more practical of the two, taking into account the cost of construction, but the Winding Gulf route serves one of the very best coal fields in the state and the increased cost of construction will be more than compensated for by the great tonnage of coal that the Winding Gulf is capable of producing over Slab Fork with all of its wonderful possibilities.
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Gordon Hamilton
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