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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Tunga>Bluefield Daily Telegraph<BR>January 28,
1910</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=5>$3,500,000 TO BE EXPENDED ON THIS
DIVISION</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG><FONT size=5>Twenty-one Contractors Figuring on Work
for Norfolk and Western</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT size=4>MANY SHARP CURVES ARE TO BE CUT OUT</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG>Two Tunnels Will be Driven Between Kimball and Welch
and Double Track, it is Learned, Will Be Laid at Once</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=center>TWO MILLIONS APPROPRIATED FOR DRY FORK CUT OFF</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The Daily Telegraph stated recently that the
Norfolk and Western is to let a number of contracts on February 1st for work on
the Pocahontas and Scioto divisions. Following this statement it is now
learned, unofficially, that the work on this division alone will amount to over
$3,500,000 while the work on the Sciota division will reach $1,500,000.
Two tunnels between Kimball and Welch will be built in addition to straightening
the track at several points. Double track will be laid between West Vivian
or Kimball and Huger, while a double track tunnel will be built in Kimball which
will cut off from where the old station was located and pass through the hill at
that point. This tunnel will pass very closely underneath the
cemetery. At Big Four another tunnel will be built. The Dry Fork
tunnel, which will be 4,700 feet long, will also be constructed. This will
be a single track tunnel, and it is learned that there has been about $2,000,000
appropriated for work on the Dry Fork cut off which will eventually connect with
the Clinch Valley division</DIV>
<DIV align=left> At Kimball the company will extend its yards
west, putting in several tracks which are known as classification tracks.
Near Wyoming the company will build double track from Wyoming to mile post 435
and from mile post 445 1/2 to 447. A number of sharp curves will be cut
out and if the original plan is followed tunnels will be constructed at Panther,
Mount's Curve and Delorme. The tunnels are to be 1,200, 1,800 and 1,500
feet respectively. The Kimball tunnel, outside of approaches, will be
about 900 feet in length while the Big Four tunnel without the approaches will
be about 600 feet in length.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> Twenty-one contracts have been figuring on
the work and most of them were in this city yesterday morning and last
night. They arrived at various times from the field and will leave here
for Roanoke where they will submit their bids on the first of February when the
contracts will either be let or turned down according to the bids which will be
received.</DIV>
<DIV align=left> The work which is to be done will be of the
greatest importance to the Norfolk and Western, as it will straighten out many
places in the line which are in first class condition but which now cost the
company a great deal of money on account of the curves which are a continual
wear on equipment and which require a heavy outlay to maintain. The most
noticeable of all the improvements which have been made up to date on the road
are those near Roderfield, or the present station, Claren; at Welch, where a
tunnel allows the road to save a long haul on a continual curve; and between
Hallsville and Hemphill, where two tunnels cut off quite a distance. There
are a number of other places which were greatly and materially improved by the
six tunnels which were built in 1907 and their effect on the earnings of the
road has been apparent, inasmuch as they primarily saved mileage and then the
ordinary wear which every one connected with a railroad knows is continual on a
road cut up with curves. When the original plans of the company are
complete the Norfolk and Western will be perhaps the best coal carrying road in
the country. All of the proposed work in addition to many other
improvements is being made without any great additional outlays and in face of
an increased dividend.</DIV>
<DIV align=center>------</DIV>
<DIV align=left>[<EM>A 1910 operating timetable in the N&WHS Archives shows
Wyoming to be about midway between Panther and Alnwick. Wyoming was the
west end of the 12.8-mile double track whose east end was at Jim, which was 0.5
mi. west of Devon. A Pocahontas division track chart reveals that the
proposed tunnels at Panther and Delorme were never built. The tunnel at
Mount's Curve is doubtful as that name does not show up in the operating
timetables of 1909 and 1910.</EM>]</DIV>
<DIV align=left> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=6 face=Script>Gordon
Hamilton</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>