Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-09-06
CHESAPEAKE & WESTERN.
Progress made in carrying cut
a great railroad project.

From Baltimore Sun.
J. w. Reinhart, ex-president OF
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Re
railroad, who has gone to New
York FROM White Sulphur Springs
passed through Baltimore on his
way north and registered at the
Hotel Stafford.
He has returned to the activity OF
railroad work after several years
retirement because Of ill-health
and is now at the head Of a syndi-
cate of Northern capitalists which
is building the Chesapeake and
Western railroad.
With Mr.. Reinhart was T. H.
Blackwell, of Pittsburg, Pa, chief
engineer of the Chesapeake and
Western.
Work on the new line is now in
progress between EiktOn,. on the
Shenandoah Valley Division OF
the Norfolk and Western, and
Bridgewater. Construction was
commenced Jane IL, and of the rs
miles Of road between the two
places named 7 miles are finished.
III two weeks another section ct Z
miles will be completed. BY Noy.
Is, the whole rs miles, it is said,
will be ready for operation and
contracts are now being arranged
for rollng stock and equipment,
From Bridgewater west the syn
dictate owns an old grade of thirty
five miles, extending to within ff-
teen miles Of the West Virginia
State line. As soon as the con-
struction now in hand is finished
the work of extending the road
over this grade is to be undertaken.
The character of the roadbed and
all accessories, Mr.. Reinhart says,
will equal the present standard Of
railroad construction maintained
on all the leading trunk lines.
Taking advantage Of the low
price of rails, the syndicate several
months ago bought sixty-seven
miles Of eighty-pound steel rails,
and this material is being delivered
as the work progresses. These
supplies cover the sixty-two miles
Of road which are to be built at
present and provide for five miles
of sidings. On the first division
of twenty-five miles the principal
stations will be Elkton, Harrison
burg, Dayton and Bridgewater,
and depots will be built at these
places. The engineer corps is now
employed in making four surveys
east from Elktou with a view of
deciding upon a route Cor the ex-
tension to be built toward deep
water navigation.
Speaking'of the possibilities OF
the coal development of West Viz
ginia, Mr.. Reinhart says that from
ninety square miles Of coal terrific
" in the Pocahontas field similar
to that to be trayersed by the Ches-
apeake aud Western there have
been shipped il twelve years, start
ing with an annual output of from
forty to fifty thousand tons, all ag-
gregate Of over twenty million
tons. The proposed route of the
Chesapeake and Western crosses
and reaches the coal beds of the
lower, middle and upper measures
Of the trans-Appalachiap coal field
embracing all the varieties Of bi-
luminous and semi-bituminous
Goals known in the markets. Dense
forests Of timber also hold out a
promising traffic for the road.
A continuation of the road to
the OHIO river is also planned by
the syndicate, crossing for an air.
line distance Of seventy-fve miles
the counties of Greenbrier, Nicho-
las, Clay and Kanawha, perhaps
following the Elk river to the great
Kanawha at Charleston, or, follow
ing the Gauley river to its mouth,
to the great Kanawha near its falls.
From Charleston a route fifty miles
long to the Ohio river would be
followed.