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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>February 9, 1909</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=4>VIRGINIAN BUYS WHITE OAK AND PINEY
CREEK</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>Two Branch Lines Will Furnish Heavy Tonnage to H. H.
Rogers' New Road</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left> A man prominent in contracting circles is
authority for the story that the Virginian Railway has purchased the White Oak
Railroad from the Adam* Dixon interests and that contracts have been closed with
the operators along the White Oak Railroad whereby their tonnage will be thrown
to the Virginian Railway instead of over the Chesapeake and Ohio, as has been
done in the past. It is further learned by the Daily Telegraph that the
Virginian has purchased the Piney Creek branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio and
has secured contracts with that line whereby their tonnage will go over the new
railroad, Neither of those stories could be officially verified last
night, but it was leaned that contracts were signed in Norfolk nearly sixty days
ago whereby the coal from along these lines would go over the Virginian.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> If these stories are true, and there is every
reason to believe that they are, it means that the reports from New York that
there would be plenty of tonnage for the Virginian Railway when it was finished
have been verified and made true. The immense tonnage from these two
lines, in addition to the tonnage that will be in sight in another year when the
Winding Gulf route is finished, will help the road to float all the bonds it
needs for the completions of its lines into Mingo and Logan counties and perhaps
the line down the Guyandotte if it is found that it is necessary to build that
extension from Elmore in the near future.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> It has been well known among coal interests
in this city for some time that Sax Dixon has been taking orders for coal in
Roanoke and at other points along the Virginian Railway. It was hard to
see how he could make it pay and ship over the Chesapeake and Ohio but now that
the White Oak Railroad deal has been made and the property transferred to the
Virginian Railway it will be a matter of much moment to the operators in the
Pocahontas field who have had the business practically to themselves.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The new railroad will have through freight
trains in operation along its own line in a few days, and although there are
still nearly 40,000 bolts to be riveted in the New River bridge, the work is
being pushed rapidly with every hope of completion in two weeks. This will
bring the road to practical completion by the first of March, at which time it
is planned to commence running passenger trains from Charleston to Roanoke and
from there to Norfolk where it is expected that the new road will make use of
Lamberts Point in case their own pier at Sevells Point is not completed.</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left>[<EM>*Initial letter indistinct. I think that the Piney
Creek branch remained part of the C&O. I wonder how the crew and
passengers on the first mixed train over the bridge on Feb.3rd must have felt if
they knew the bridge was held together with temporary bolts!</EM>]</DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Script size=6>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>