N&W in 1910--Pocahontas division

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
July 1, 1910

PUSHING WORK ON TUNNEL CONTRACTS
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Pocahontas Division Fast Becoming One of Best and Busiest Places of Road in the Country
    The work on the various tunnel contracts in the field along the Pocahontas division of the Norfolk and Western is being pushed.  In every case the rock has been exposed and passengers going through the section where the work is being done have a chance to see the amount of track which will be cut out and the distances which will be saved as well as the curves which will be cut out.  In a few years the Pocahontas division will well earn the name of the tunnel division, but this name it can afford to carry as from an operation standpoint the road will be almost perfect.  The expense of hauling coal trains over long curves will be done away with and the addition of new and larger engine equipment, such as is seen in the Mallet engines, will make the division the best division in the country when the amount of freight originating on it and the cost of assembling and movement is taken into consideration.  At the present time there is perhaps more freight originated along the lines of the Pocahontas division than along the same amount of any railroad in the world.  The cost of moving it is not comparatively large but this cost will be reduced until a minimum is reached and if electrification ever takes the place of steam the absence of curves will give the road a big advantage.
    There is only one thing lacking to make the road an even bigger revenue producer.  If a trolley line could be built from Bluefield to Welch to take care of the short passenger traffic, the road could get away from the delays and waits caused by the running of passenger trains with the result that freight could be moved even more economically.  In addition to this the through traffic of the road would be bettered by bringing to the section people who would take much more pleasure in making their trips through the field by electricity as they could make them quicker.  That result would be they would make the trips to this section more frequently and the few long hauls would more than pay for the many short hauls.
    The trolley line would benefit every village it went through and the Norfolk and Western being the only railroad to pass through the section could not help but reap more of the benefits which the smaller towns would receive.
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Gordon Hamilton
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