The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1882-01-26
naoins to Look Like Business.

In a receat ndmber of the Farmer,
and Urchnaic, sc mentioned having a
.c.U while at M%orristown, Tenn, from
NoI King. Gan Old friend of the writer's
family President of the Cumberland
can and French Broad Railroad. and
we outlined tie projected Route through
| North Carolina viz.-from MOrrlstown
due East to the point were Pidgeon
| River crosses the North Carolina line;
| thence on up the valley of the Pldgeon,
! through Haywood county (passlng with
in four or five miles Of Waynesvllle,
/ unless a slight deviation should be made
to take in that town.; under the spur
| of Mt. Pisgah by tunnel; through the
Pink Beds; around Looking Glass
| Mountain through Eastatoe zap; the
lowest grade in the whole chain OF the
Appalachian.; and on to Plckens
Court douse: there to meet and united
with the Abbeville K. r.; making a
direct line from Charleston to Clncln
natl, via Cumberland Gap.
We found that Railroad men up
west. and in Tennessee, were disposed
to shake their heads. ina contemptuous
manner, at the idea of any such road
being built. Though 1t was admItte1
that if Col. King, and the parties be
hind him could get possession OF the
line already built from Ashevllle to
Warm Springs and MorristOwn; hen
the whole thing would loom into i'm
mense significance. For there is 40
doubt that a line from the seacoast
to Cincinnati through Eastatoe and
Cumberland Gaps would at once take
rank as the main channel for the Great
Vest to empty her pork, her gram,
her live stock, and her machinery into
the laps of the C%arolinians and Geor
gians.
For these (among others) reasons, we
last week predicted that within two
years the Richmond & Danville people
would sell the IS miles of their track from
Ashevilie to Volt Greek, commonly
called the Paint Rock Branch These
forty five miles will not pay even the
ordinary running expenses 50 ong rs
they comprise merely a Branch, a
spur running out to meet a similar spur
of the e. T. Virginia and Georgia
Grand Trunk Line" But if the IS
miles of the Paint Rock Branch, and
the 45 miles oftbe ''Morristown Branch.
were consolidated and the missing link
between Asheville and Piskens con
structed, then the Valley OF the
French Broad would awake to the
uproar of a dozen trains per day! We
repeat that we expect to see some OF
these things coming to pass within two
years hence. Meantime, the Cumber
land Gappers, are preparing the
way. and making their preliminary
paths straight. As we stated in oul
former article, there arc ostensibly three
different companies, organized to &c,
charters in the three States of 5. g.,
N. c.. and Tenn-C. The Tennessee
company has let it's line, Qrom Cum
berland Gap to Nlorristown,) to contract:
= Northern Syndicate taking it. And
now we find in the Charleston papers
an account of the formal closing Of a
contract between the South Carolina
Company known as the Atlantic and
French Broad Valley r. Rand a
New York firm, Messrs. Childs, Oliver
& Co., who agree to build the entire line
from Edgefeld Court House to Brevard,
in Transatlantic county, North Carolina,
passing through Eastatoe Gap, as al
ready outlined. Work is to begin by
Sept. lst, and must be completed within
two years from that date.