The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1893-06-29

THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1893.
Railroad Intererts in the Two Vir-
ginias.
The struggle now in progress between
rival railroad systems to possess the cox
| ing coal fields of Virginia and West Vir-
ginia marks a new stage of the develop
ment of the natural resources Of the Old
Dominion. A railroad without coal fields
and coal traffic, according to some rail-
road men, is at a serious disadvantage in
| the fight for net earnings. 1t must have
cheap coal for it's own use. 1t is all the
better off if it can have also the steady
| flow of businass found in the handling
| of coal and other like products for which
there is universal demand. 1t is there.
! fore, not surprising that the coking coal
country $50 miles long and from 90 to 80
miles wide, extending from Southwest
Virginia northward into West Virginia,
is now being penetrated in keen rivalry
| by a number of competitors. The fact
that many of the mines of the Connells>
vile coking coal of Pennsylvania are be-
| ing exhausted adds to the interest the
rivals feel in the virgin field they are
now hurriedly opening up, particularly
since it is known positively that the
Flat Top, or New River, coal is equal to
the Connellsville for foundry purposes.
The fight for possession goes on at
present in two fairly distinct areas. In
the southern part of the coal field in
question the Norfolk s. Western and the
Chesapeake & Ohio are pitted against
each other; in the northern part the B.
& 0. and Pennsylvania interests are the
contestants. According to a correspond
ent of the New York Times the rivals are
| at present using every resource to pos
sess the land, each seeking to anticipate
and exclude the other. The Norfolk &
Western, extending from Norfolk, Va,
to Columbus, Ohio, trayerses the south
ern part OF West Virginia. The coking
coal lands in Mercer, Mcdowell, Wyo-
ming, Logan and Wayne counties belong
mostly to stockholders of the Norfolk &
Western, who have built the newer por-
ton of the railroad to develop their prop
critics. By recent extensions and pur>
chases of roads in Ohio Western outlets
are secured for all the coal and coke pro-
duced. The Chesapeake s. Ohio Rail-
road Company has been even more enpr-
getic in penetrating the coal field with
branch lines and opening outlets for coal
and coke East and West. The Newport
News terminals of the Chesapeake &
Ohio have been made adequate to the
handling of large coal exports and the
effort has been made to supplant the
eastward through traffic in grain, &c.,
With large westward coal movement.
4 It has built numerous branches and
fianked them with coking ovens. One
new branch runs from Coalburg up Cabin
I creek. Another follows Loup creek, in
Raleigh county. A third, 40 miles long,
up Piney river, is to be begun at once.
The Vanderbi!ts are said to own vast
tracts of coking coal land in this region.
An extension of Piney River Road to
the Guyandotte river is in contempla>
ton, with the object of controlling ter
ritory for 125 miles south of the main
line of the Chesapeake s. Ohio. To con-
troll the traffic north of its main line the
G. & 0. is also running branch up Gau.
! ley river and has made close traffic ar
rangement with the Kanawha & Michi-
gan Railroad, which occupies the North
| u 80 -
the mouth of the Gauley By double
tracking its main line from Clifton Forge
to the mouth of the Gauley the G. & Q.
secures two tracks East and West and
will compete vigorously with the Norfolk
& Western in Hampton Roads and on
| the lakes.
| Sixty miles from the mouth of Gauley
river is Camden on Gauley, the present
terminus of the West Virginia & Pitts
burg Railroad, which, with the Balti-
more s. Ohio, is extending it's lateral lines
in all directions into the northern part
of the West Virginia coal and coking re-
gion. It is to the iron and glass furnaces
of Pittsburg and Wheeling, according to
the Times correspondent, that the West
Virginia & Pittsburg railroad looks chief
ly for market for it its timber and coal,
but its intimate relations with the Balti-
more & Ohio insure it a free outlet east
ward to Baltimore. An opposing interest
is that of the West Virginia Central,
which aims to occupy the coking coal
| field of Webster and Nicholas counties.
| 1t has already occupied Mineral, Grant,
| Tucker and Randolph counties, and is
pushing northward through Barbour
and Taylor counties to Grafton. Here
it will form junction with a Pennsyl-
vania company in which Don Cameron
is interested, which proposes to build a
road from Fairchance, Pa, to Grafton,
to develop mines owned by that poll
tician. The two companies, operating
together, contemplate an extension into
] Pocahontas county to connect at Marlin
ton with the Warm Springs branch of
the C. and 0. Thus, it will be seen, the
long-neglected mineral resources of the
| Virginias have at length a promise of full
opportunity for development.
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