"West Virginia and Ohio Railroad Company"

[NW Mailing List]

The original Flat-Top extension went down the Bluestone River and later
became the Bluestone Branch. This is detailed in NWHS publication "Bluestone
- Norfolk & Western Branch Line." The line that was built through Flat-Top
Tunnel was known as the Elkhorn Extension.

 

Initial plans were to build down the Bluestone River, turn west at Crane
Creek, tunnel under Peters Gap to Pinnacle Creek. Follow the creek to
Pineville and then the Guyandotte to Rockcastle through Walnut Gap to Little
Coal Creek and then Little Coal Creek to just west of St. Albans and a
connection with the Ohio Central RR. A map may have existed, but the most
likely plan was the outlined in McGreath's "Mineral Wealth of Virginia"
survey that was sent to Kimball in the summer of 1884.

 

You can trace the route by using the Virginia & Ohio Railroad map shown on
page 39 of "Billion Dollar Coalfield.  The Virginia & Ohio plan was dated
Jan 12, 1887 and is included in the N&W's 1887 or 1888 Annual Report."

 

Since stock subscriptions for the West Virginia & Ohio RR were started on
June 19, 1886, it is a reasonable assumption that the West Virginia & Ohio
plan was the one that followed the Bluestone River to Crane Creek. 57 shares
were sold for the proposed West Virginia & Ohio. 

 

We are currently planning an article on the Ohio Extension for the July 2015
issue of The Arrow that will include information from McGreath's report.

 

Alex Schust

 

From: NW-Mailing-List [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of
NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 9:46 AM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org; nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org
Subject: "West Virginia and Ohio Railroad Company"

 

Norfolk Southern Corp made a Facebook posting this morning that included the
following, "A Norfolk Southern predecessor, the West Virginia and Ohio
Railroad Company was chartered in 1886 to construct a railroad from a point
on the line of the Flat Top Extension of the New River Division of the
Norfolk and Western Railroad in Mercer County, West Virginia, (near the
boundary line with Virginia), to Charleston, West Virginia. "

 

Is there in the Archives a map showing the proposed route?  Of course we
know it wasn't built in the real world, but in the "alternate universe" of a
freelanced model railroad, such a route would be of considerable interest!

 

Dave Phelps

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