Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1906-01-10
Completion of Railroad between
Lexington and Salem

Completion of Railroad between
Lexington and Salem
The frequent revival Of the
rumors with reference to the
completion Of the Valley Railroad
from Lexington to Salem seems to
indicate that there is some ground
for the belief that steps are under
consideration for some such move
ment. The inspection of the route
by officials ard the resurveys made
by engineering forces would
certainly induce people to lock for
some action leading to the con-
summation of this long delayed
and much desired movement on the
part of the railroad authorities.
A dispatch was sent out from
Roanoke last week to the effect
that the road between Lexington
and Salem was soon to be pushed
to completion. A few days after
wards the rumor Was contradicted,
and the additional statement was
made thas negotiations are in
progress by which the Baltimore
and Ohio will be able to run
through trains over the Valley
branch from Shenandoah junction
to Lexington instead of making
the changes at Strasburg and
Harrisonburg, as at present.
The special dispatch from
Roanoke last Thursday gives at
length the history of the Velfey
projection of the Baltimore and
Ohio. Baltimore su bscri b e d
81, 100000 and Rockbridge county
gave b, If that much. The road
was chartered In 1865, completed
to Stanton in 1874 and 60 Lex
inQton in 1888. Much of the
grading and heavy masonry was
done to Salem, but that part of
the road south of Lexington was
abandoned. The report continues ::
Baltimore is to- have a direct
railway connection with Roanoke
and the rich Southwest section OF
the Old Dominion. This will be
made possible by the building of
seventy-fve miles of road by the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad,
thirty-five miles of which will be
on almost n perfectly level stretch
of country through Shenandoah
and Rockingham counties, parallel
ing the Southern railway between
Strasburg and Harrisonburg.
cat Harrisonburg the Balti-
more and Ohio will take its own
tracks, which run now from
Harrisonburg to Lexington, dis
lance OF sixty miles. A. Lexing
ton, the Baltimore and Ohio will
commence laying rails on graded
roadbed that runs from that point
to Salem, a distance Of forty miles.
Salem is six miles from Roanoke.
"The Baltimore and Ohio will
bring ite main line to Roanoke and
and give Salem spur.
s'The Tidewater. railroad, now
building from Norfolk to the West
Virginia coal fields, will be tapped
at Roanoke, Us viii also the Nor
folk and Western, which drains
Southwest Virginia and Southern
West Virginia and upper North
Carolina and East Tennessee and
East Kentucky. A new road now
ready to begin grading from Win
stOn, N. c., to Charleston, ). g.,
will be reached through Norfolk
and Western Connections, thus giving
Baltimore merchants an unbroken
connection through to South
Cardinals seaport city.
THE tidewater connection made
here Will put Batimere merchants
in direct Communication with
Virginia., where there
are hundr IDS of thousands Of
consumers which have hot before
been lou lhed by the Baltimore
people.
"The graded roadbed from
Salem to Lexington was built by
the merchants of Baltimore, and
the counties through which the
line runs. This wss done twenty
five years ago, and the project
abandoned then because of Difficult
ties with which the then president;
Robert Garrett, met at the time
in reaching New York. 1t mas
been learned from perfectly au-
thentic source that the Baltimore
and Ohio will Eow carry out
CARROTS original idea, and bring
their road to Roanoke at an early
date.
Baltimore will reach Roanoke
via Harper's Ferry, and thence
through the fertile Shenandoah
Valley and tap the greatest iron
and coal and lumber region east
of the Mississippi river, just now
in it's first stage of development,
by the Norfolk and Western, which
penetrates the Pocahontas and
Flat Top coal fields,