Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-12-27
THE RAILROAD BOOM
NOW BEING EXPERIENCED THROUGHOUT
WEST VIRGINIA.
One Of Our Manufacturers Gives a Pitsburg
Reporter Some Points on New
Enterprises.

One of our iron manufacturers, in Pitts
burgh on business, has furnished a Dis
patch reporter with al interesting sum
mary of the activity in railroad matters
now going on in our State. He says:
1.-THE completion of the extension of the
Norfolk and Western railroad from Flat
Top Mountain, West Virginia, across that
State to the Ohio river at Ironton, and
from that point to a connection with the
lines of the Pennsylvania Company IN
Ohio, will give the latter company a feeder
of immense size. From its junction with
the Shenandoah Valley and the close rela-
tions existing between the lines, the Nor
folk and Western, it is understood by
many, is being backed by the Pennsyl-
vania railroad. At least since the
proposed ~extention of the Western from
the mines at Flat Top Noun
tain through West Virginia to Ohio,
Philadelphia men have been most prOml-
nent in the scheme. 1t was at first pro-
posed to come down to the Kanawha Val
ley above Charleston and by crossing the
river reach Ohio by the Kanawha and
Ohio, which is now completed to Charles
ton from Point Pleasant. Some of the
richest mineral lands in the State are in
Boone and Roane counties to the west,
and the final route of the new road was
laid through these counties down the Mud
and Guyandotte rivers to the Ohio. Men,
bers of the company nave recently ac-
quired tracts of land aggregating several
hundreds of thousands of acres along the
line of the road, and work On grading has
been omnenced.
at wa, originally intended to go down
the Big Sandy in Kentucky and to strike
the Ohio ri7er neal ~IrontOn, but by so
doing they would have clashed with
Huntingdon interest in the Chatevi road
from Catlettso urg back into the country.
When completed the road will furnish a
new route North and South, as the Nor
folk and Western reaches Atlanta, Ga,
over the old Tennessee and Georgia line.
Then in the northern part of the State
there will be great activity in railroad
matters during the next year. Ex-senator
Davis and his party, who have q broad
gauge road from Davis to Piedmont, have
Just leased from the Pennsylvania Rail
road the line from Cumberland to Davis,
and have given notice that they
will apply to the Legislature for a
charter giving them the right to
90 down either the Gauley or Elk
rivers to the Kanawha Valley. This will
give a new Eastern connection for the
Kanawha, and will open up a veIy large
new district containing coal, ore and lum-
bar. The shipments of coal from the
Kanawha Valley have been growing rapid
", and block coal from the Black Band
Iron and Coal COmpany's mines is sent to
Chicago and the Northwest. To get them
there the coal must be ferried from Ashland,
Ky, to ~Ironton, and then hauled over
three or four roads. The Kanawha and
Ohio, another Pennsylvania Company con-
n%ectiOn, has recently been re6tted with To-
comOtives and cars. The lower division
of the Ohio River road, from Parkersburg
to Point Pleasant, is almost completed,
and work on the extension of the Cincin-
natl and Eastern, from Portsmouth to
Gallipolis, will be begun soon."