The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1908-01-30
new RAILROAD
WILL Be GREAT
South and Western To Be The Best Built-
Importance Of This New Line Told in the
Manufacturers Record. Means Much in
the Development of East Tennessee.

Mr.. George ByTne, special corre-
spendent Of the Manufacturers Record,
writes to that publication from John
son City, Tenn, as follows:
About the beginning of the year 1905
small coterie Of capitalists secured
control of about 800, 900 acres Of coal
land lying in Wise, Dickinson and
Buchanan counties, Virginia, an d
formed the Clinchfield Coal Corpora.
tion, in the name Of Which the title to
the land was taken. With the land
they also acquired control of the prop
erty of the old Charleston, Cincinnati
and Chicago Railway Co., consisting
OF grade and right-of way and few
detached bits of operated line along
the general route. This road, locally
known as the "Three Cs," was pro-
jected about thirty years ago, but work
was stopped on it in the early nineties
and never resumed.
The company Of capitalists, knowing
thoy had a fine body of coal land,
looked about for the best means of
securing a market for the production
from it when it should be developed.
They saw. that there was a growing
demand for fuel in the Central South
by reason of the rapid development of
the manufacturing business in that sec
tion, and determined to take advan-
tage of the opportunities it offered.
This they recognized would require
the building of new line of railroad,
which they determined to build. Thus
the South and Western Railroad, as
now designed and under way, sprung
into being. The line as now located
will run from Elkhart City, Pike coun-
ty, Kentucky, to Spartanburg, s, c., a
distance of 2s4 miles. At Elkhorn
City it will connect with the Big Sandy
branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railway, which will furnish an outlet
for the products of the mines to the
Northwest. But the South, and espe-
cially that part known as the Central
South, was the section considered most
valuable for the marketing of the coal
to be produced, and for that reason
more attention will be paid to 1t in this
article
The South and Western road is now
under construction from Dante, Va,
to Bostic, N c., distance of 2l1
miles At Bostic it will connect with
the Charlotte and RutheIfordton lines
of the Seaboard Air Line. Ifcontinued
to Spartanburg, s. c., as proposed, il
will connect there with the Southern
Railways line to Atlanta, while over
the Charleston and Western Carolins
Railway from there sixty miles distant
it could reach the atlanta route of the
Seaboard Air Line. The track is now
laid on 100 miles Of this 2l1-mile route
and trihe over 20 per cent. of the
work on the remainder is completed.
The South and Western, in seeking
the most direct line from the coal fieldl
to the southern market, crosses th'
Appalachian range OF mountains fol-
their entire width at almost righ
angles, and in doing so secures, a
great cost, very low grades, the maxi
mum being twenty-six feet to the mil,
against southbound freight, while fo
more than half the distance the heavi
est grade against southbound traffic i
only sixteen feet to the mile. Th,
maxim I'm curvature is degrees, will
the exception of four places down tn
southern slope OF the Blue Ridge
where s-degree curves have beef
used.
The advantage of this low grade viii
be readily perceived by the practica
mind. The problem that confront
that section of the South which thi
road is intended to reach is pre-emi
nently one of transportation. 1t i
doubtful if many of the business me-
of the section, able and progressive a
they are, realize the magnitude of thi
problem. 1t is absolutely certain the
the large majority of their legislator
and officials do not. They have rail
roads that are in fairly good condition
as far as surface indications appear
the layman, but they were built at
time when the business offered wa
slight and more costly constructio
would not have been profitable,
The grades are extremely heavy, Sc
dom averaging less than 80 feet to th
mile, and in some cases being NOR
than 200 feet. And this on lines ove
which the coal supply Of that section
. hauled. Owing to the splendid wor
of the railroads themselves, and esp,
cislly of the Southern, in developiH
industries along their lines, the capa,
ity of the railroads has long ago bee
reached, and the result now is ammo,
ing congestion Of freight that mstsria