The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-04-18
VANDERBHT'S LINE.
Where the New Road Will Get Its
Traffic-Buying Up Iron Ore and
Coal Lands.

Where the New Road Will Get Its
Trafdc-Buying Up Iron Ore and
Coal Lands.
PHILADELPHIA, April 10.-Itis by
no means probable that the road
proposed by Mr.. Vanderbilt from
connection with the Philadelphia &
Reading Railroad at Harrisburg to
point on the Youghiogheny, viii be
completed within the next two
years. There have been three sur
veys made, but no line has been
definitely agreed upon. The bridge
across the Susquehanna at Harris
burg is to cost 100000, and the
contract has been awarded to Clarke,
Reeves & Co, at Pottstown, this
State. President Gowen states that
he will be able to offer an amount
of freight for shipment to Pittsburg
and the West over the new line that
to the outsider does not appear.
1t will make another trunk inefrom
the city of New York to the great
West. The Jersey Central, which
will be
LEASED To THE READING
as soon as it goes out of the hands
of the receiver, will deliver passen-
gers and freight to the Reading Com
panv at Allentown, and from thence
they will be taken on to Harrisburg
and Pittsburg by the new Southwest
road of Mr. Vanderbilt's and the
Pittsburg, Mex eesport and Yough-.|
iogheny, and from Pittsburg to the
west via the PIttsburg and Lake Erie
and the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern. 1t is contended by the
projectors of the new trunk line that
the dvantages to Pittsburg manu-
facturers from the new line will be
very numerous. Raw materials are
especially mentioned. Ores and
coal will be brought in at greatly re-
duced rates of freight, and the man
ufacturers of Pit:sburg will be thus
able to meet manufacturers of any
other market.
BUYING UP IRON AND COAL LANDS.
Mr.. Vanderbilt and his friends
are purchasing iron ore and coal
lands along the line of :he new road
wherever they are to be fouad.
These are to be developed, and when
the road is opened it will be with an
assured tonnage OF coal and other
products, the greater portion of which
will find a market in Pittsburg.
The syndicate representing Mr. Van
derbilt has invested no less than So
100000 in coal lands in Westmore-
land, Fayette, Washington and Som
erset counties. In Bedford they
have purchased several very valua-
bic iron ore tracts and they contend
that with line of railroad to Pitts
burg through the richest mineral
region of the world, and fifty miles
shorter than the Pennsylvania Rail
road, that they will have the
carrying Of the larger portion of the
raw materials used by the manufac-
turers OF that city.
There is some uneasiness felt in
coal trade circles that with the pro
posed development of so many new
fields of coal land. that within
few years the market will be glutted.
The Vanderbilts have come into
Pennsylvania determined to dig coal
wherever it is to be had along their
lines OF road and put it down at
tidewater and other points as cheap
ly as others. They have discovered
what an immense profit there is in
it, and at the same time are desirous
oi coming into strong competition
with the Pennsylvania Railroad in
transporting this product. They
have gone into Clearfield county,
where the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company were supposed to be the
supreme master of the situation, and
taken up tracts of land containing
coal from five to seven feet in the
thickness of the veins. and in the
adjoining county Of Clinton are now
opening a tract of 10000 acres, and
are constructing a line OF railroad
leading to a connection with the
Reading, for the shipment of the
product to the lake at Buffalo. and
to the East. | have already men
toned what they were doing in the
way of coal land purchases on the
line from Harrisburg to Pittsburg,
and the Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany must be careful to secure ter
ritory or it viii be badly left in a
few years in finding that the Van
derbilt is draining a territory upon
which their lines should rely.
LAST YEARS COAL PRODUCTION.
The total production of bitumin-
Gus coal last year was 22,000.OOO
tons: but gentlemen of long expert
ence in this branch of industry de-
clare that if all the companies now
chartered to engage in coal mining
carry out their intentions, the pro-
duction OF last year will be doubled
within the next two years and that
coal will be a drug in the market.
Coal is very dull at this time, but
such condition of affairs is account
81 for bu The ir,lIpa-s &C H. ,-ox.