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<DIV><FONT face="Trebuchet MS">Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>September 1,
1909</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>DOUBLE TRACK FROM COLUMBUS
TO SEA</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman">------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman">Norfolk and Western Also
Regrading Road and Making Improvements and Extensions</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"> Sunday's
Columbus Dispatch had its front page embellished with about a dozen cuts showing
the Norfolk and Western double track work between Portsmouth and Columbus.
Accompanying the picture was the following article:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"> "The busy scenes
pictured in the accompanying illustrations show how the Norfolk and Western
railroad is working to double track and regrade its road in Ohio. The
central part of the work now is being done north of Asheville and from there it
is being pushed south toward Chillicothe. When the work has gone that far
the Norfolk and Western will have practically a double track from Columbus to
the sea.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"> "All of the 707
miles from Columbus to Norfolk has been practically double tracked and firmly
reballasted except that portion in Ohio between Columbus and Chillicothe.
When work was begun in Ohio it started at Portsmouth and went north to
Chillicothe. Now it is being started near Columbus and pushed
south.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"> "The huge task
of double-tracking has been going on for the last five or six years.
Thousands of men have been employed and millions of dollars have been
spent. Within the next year or two the entire plant of track
rehabilitation will have been complete. This will include the laying of
additional track and new heavy rail in Ohio and other places where temporarily
spurs and switches are taking the place of a solid double track. The ultimate
idea is to have an actual double track all the way to the sea.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"> "During the
course of the work hundreds upon hundreds of southern negroes and swarms of
foreign laborers are being employed.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"> "The
double-tracking is only a part of the new plans of this road. The latest
project of the management is to build an eighty-mile spur from Winston-Salem, N.
C., to Wadesboro, N. C. This will connect at the latter point with the
Atlantic coast line [<EM>sic</EM>] and thus tap directly the rich mining fields
of the southern district which owes much of its underdevelopment to lack of
transportation. This spur is to be begun in the very near future.
[<EM>This was to become the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway.</EM>]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"> "In the meantime
there is further immense railroad activity in the rich mining regions of West
Virginia, North and South Carolina and Virginia. The Clinchfield, Carolina
& Ohio road, controlled by the Cumberland Syndicate of New York, already
runs from Dante, Va., to Bostic, N. C., a distance of 212 miles. It goes
through the heart of the big mining and cotton territory. The important
thing, however, is that the same road is to be extended south to Spartanburg, S.
C., (and eventually to Charleston) and north to Elkhorn, Ky., making a total
mileage of 284. At Elkhorn the prospective extension can make connections
with the Chesapeake & Ohio and thus gain access to the north through
Cincinnati. However, other more direct plans are being discussed whereby
the Clinchfield road may reach the lakes, but none has been finally
adopted. When the Clinchfield road is extended it can reach the sea by
connecting at Spartanburg with the Seaboard Air Line. Its plan is thus to
reach from the lakes to the sea.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"> "The importance
of this can be seen in the fact that the Clinchfield coal people plan after this
year to place 2,000,000 tons of coal annually on the market. Also the road
will open up a direct route through the mountains from Ohio to the heart of
South Carolina. It might not be far fetched to say that it may mean the
nucleus for a great line from the coal and cotton fields of the south to the
great lake region."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman">------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman">[<EM>So, it was not just the small
Bluefield newspaper that speculated on railroad matters back in those
days.</EM>]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Script size=6>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>