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105-826: The Wabash's major freight traffic advantage was the direct line from Kansas City to Detroit, without going through St. Louis or Chicago. Despite being merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) in 1964, the Wabash company continued to exist on paper until the N&;W merged into the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) in 1982. At the end of 1960 Wabash operated 2,423 miles of road on 4,311 miles of track, not including Ann Arbor and NJI&I ; that year it reported 6,407 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 164 million passenger-miles. The source of

210-804: A nurse in the Confederate capital of Richmond . The N&P was severed by the war. The portion east of the Blackwater River at Zuni, Virginia , was held by the Union for most of the war. The eastern portion of the City Point Railroad played a crucial role for Union General Ulysses S. Grant during the Siege of Petersburg, and was operated by the United States Military Railroad . The South Side Railroad

315-562: A 7-mile stretch of track that ran from Grand Ave (through a rail yard near Vandeventer Avenue), through University City (at Delmar Station) to a junction at Redmond Ave. in Ferguson, where the Ferguson station (now an ice cream parlor) was at North Florissant and Carson Ave., and where it met up with the current Norfolk Southern mainline. After passenger service was discontinued, trains on this stretch were reduced to one westbound symbol freight and one local per day. Norfolk Southern, who took over

420-586: A book she was reading by Walter Scott . From Scott's historical Scottish novels, Otelia chose the place names of Windsor , Waverly and Wakefield . She tapped the Scottish Clan "McIvor" for the name of Ivor , a small Southampton County town. When they could not agree on a name for a station just west of the Sussex County line in Prince George , it is said that the young couple invented

525-657: A combination of smaller railroads in the eastern half of the United States. Today, former N&W trackage remains a vital portion of the Norfolk Southern Railway, a Fortune 500 company. The headquarters of the Norfolk Southern Railway and the parent Norfolk Southern Corporation are now located in Atlanta, Georgia . While the Powhatan Arrow (all- coach , Norfolk–Cincinnati/Columbus) was

630-812: A controlling interest in the Western Maryland Railroad in 1902. Another part of the plan was the Philadelphia and Western Railway , a high-speed third rail electric interurban line, which would have run from Philadelphia west to the Western Maryland at York, Pennsylvania . The lines of the Fuller Syndicate were completed in Baltimore, but the Little Kanawha line was not completed, and a connection between

735-587: A cost of $ 15 million, and had its own power plant at Narrows, Virginia . It shared electrical resources with N&W from 1925 to 1950, when the N&W discontinued its own, shorter, electrified section through the Elkhorn Tunnel and Great Flat Top Mountain region. The VGN track was de-electrified in 1962, after the N&W-VGN merger. In 1955, the N&W operated in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio. In 1959,

840-565: A group of innovative bi-level autorack railcars. These autoracks had end doors and were very large by the standards of the time; at 75 feet (23 m) long, each autorack could carry 8 completed automobiles. These autoracks were a big success and helped lead to the development of today's fully enclosed autoracks. Tri-level autoracks were developed in the 1970s. During the 1960s, autoracks took over rail transportation of newly completed automobiles in North America. They carried more cars in

945-624: A line with territory reaching as far north as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania . This would become referred to as the Shenandoah Valley Division. In 1885, several small mining companies representing about 400,000 acres (1,600 km ) of bituminous coal reserves grouped together to form the coalfields' largest landowner, the Philadelphia-based Flat-Top Coal Land Association.The N&W bought the association and reorganized it as

1050-689: A new word in honor of their "dispute", which is how the tiny community of Disputanta was named. The N&P was completed in 1858. Of small stature, dynamic "Little Billy" Mahone became a major general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War . He was widely regarded as the hero of the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864–65. Otelia Mahone served as

1155-553: A practice rare outside Britain (where most railways either built their own locomotives or had outside contractors build locomotives to their designs). The locomotives were built at the Roanoke Shops at Roanoke. The Shops employed thousands of craftsmen, who refined their products over the years. The A, J, and Y6 locomotives, designed, built and maintained by NW personnel, brought the company industry-wide fame for its excellence in steam power. The N&W's commitment to steam power

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1260-637: A promotional booklet published in 1939, the N&W wrote "For the second time in 12 years, the American Museum of Safety has awarded the Harriman Memorial Gold Medal to the Norfolk & Western Railway for the outstanding safety record during 1938 among class I railroads of the United States." It is further noted that the railway carried one million passengers more than 86,000,000 miles (138,000,000 km) without incident in

1365-540: A railroad builder ended in 1881 when northern financial interests took control. At the foreclosure auction, the AM&;O was purchased by E.W. Clark & Co. , a private banking firm in Philadelphia with ties to the large Pennsylvania Railroad . The PRR was seeking a southern connection for its Shenandoah Valley Railroad (SVRR), which was then under construction up the valley from the Potomac River . In 1881,

1470-509: A resurgence in business in the late 1970s and into the 1980s – so much so that NS largely re-built the line with newer, heavier steel and continuous welded rail in the mid-1980s. The Moberly-to-Des Moines line had few local industries shipping on it in the 1980s in either northern Missouri or southern Iowa, however, and served primarily as a "bridge" to get the NS to the Des Moines market. During

1575-733: A shorter route. This caused the abandonment of the west side of the Toledo Terminal Railroad . This line covers the 3rd (Montpelier-Detroit) and 4th (Montpelier-Clarke Jct.–B&OCT+SC&S–State Line–C&WI) Districts of the Wabash. The Wabash was part of the Union Belt of Detroit, a joint switching operation started with the Pere Marquette and later the PRR joined. Detroit-Saint Louis passenger trains: Detroit-Chicago passenger Trains: The Montpelier-Chicago line

1680-692: A shortline railroad. The abandoned section was converted for use as the south fork of the Wabash Cannonball Trail . The Maumee- Montpelier, Ohio , section was abandoned by NS in 1990, and makes up the North fork of the Wabash Cannonball Trail. It is the longest rail trail in Ohio. After the breakup of Conrail in 1998, NS connected the small remaining segment from Maumee to its Chicago Main , allowing it to access Maumee via

1785-602: A small Virginia village on the Roanoke River , to be the junction of SVRR and the N&W. Big Lick was later renamed Roanoke, Virginia . Over time, Roanoke began to grow and in the 1950s, reached a population of over 90,000. At its founding, the N&W primarily transported agricultural products. Kimball, who had a strong interest in geology , led the railroad's efforts to open the Pocahontas coalfields in western Virginia and southern West Virginia . In mid-1881,

1890-453: A small industrial branch located near Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania. At the end of 1960, P&WV operated 132 mi (212 km) of the road on 223 mi (359 km) of the track; that year it reported 439 million net ton-miles of revenue freight. Around 1900, George J. Gould was assembling railroads to create a transcontinental system . The Western Pacific Railway , Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and Missouri Pacific Railroad formed

1995-755: Is abandoned between Council Bluffs and Blanchard and was converted for use as the Wabash Trace Trail . A 93-mile portion of the Council Bluffs–St. Louis line in Missouri between Blanchard, Iowa , and Lock Springs was sold to the Northern Missouri Railroad and began operations on February 13, 1984. Operations on that line were discontinued in June 1986. The Wabash Railroad ran their passenger trains that came into St. Louis on

2100-468: The Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O). The AM&O extended 408 miles (657 km) from Norfolk to Bristol, Virginia . The Mahones moved to the headquarters city of Lynchburg , the midpoint of the AM&O. The acronym AM&O was said to stand for "All Mine and Otelia's." The AM&O operated profitably in the early 1870s but like many railroads encountered financial problems during

2205-560: The Chillicothe-Brunswick Rail Maintenance Authority (CBRM) on July 24, 1987. On April 1, 1990, the line was leased to the Wabash and Grand River Railway (WGR). The WGR's lease was terminated on December 1, 1993, due to severe flood damage on the line, and the line reverted to CBRM. In 2003, during a dispute caused by inter-community rivalries and jealousies over industrial development along

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2310-559: The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) approved VGN's merger into the N&W. In 1964, the former Wabash ; Nickel Plate ; Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway ; and Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad were brought into the system in one of the most complex mergers of the era. This consolidation, plus the 1976 addition of a more direct route to Chicago, Illinois , made N&W an important Midwestern railroad that provided direct single-line service between

2415-519: The N&;W , was a US class I railroad , formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia , for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precision Transportation"; it had a variety of nicknames, including "King Coal" and "British Railway of America". In 1986, N&W merged with Southern Railway to form today's Norfolk Southern Railway . The N&W

2520-535: The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road) merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway , and the N&W leased the Wabash and Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway . On March 31, 1970, the Pennsylvania Company exchanged its last Wabash shares for N&W common stock; that stock was later divested as a condition of the 1968 merger into Penn Central Transportation . Because it

2625-618: The Nickel Plate Road and Wabash formed a system that operated 7,595 miles (12,223 km) of road on 14,881 miles (23,949 km) of track from North Carolina to New York and from Virginia to Iowa. In 1980, the N&W merged its business operation with those of the Southern Railway , another profitable carrier, to create the Norfolk Southern Corporation holding company . The N&W and

2730-682: The Nickel Plate Road rather than the Wabash to reach both St. Louis and Chicago. The P&WV and Western Maryland never physically connected in Connellsville—a short section of Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad trackage was used to connect the P&;WV to the WM. The Nickel Plate leased the Wheeling and Lake Erie on December 1, 1949. In March 1950, the Pennroad announced plans to lease the P&WV to

2835-524: The Panic of 1873 . A fourth road of the AM&O family was planned to extend west through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, but was never built. Mahone retained control of AM&O for several more years before his relationship with English and Scottish bondholders deteriorated in 1876 and receivers were appointed to oversee his work. After several years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's role as

2940-924: The Pittsburgh and Mansfield Railroad , an unbuilt line with a charter to build into downtown Pittsburgh. By May 1 the syndicate gained control of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad , extending the system from Toledo southeast to Zanesville, Ohio , and Wheeling, West Virginia. The extension to Pittsburgh was chartered in three parts—the Cross Creek Railroad April 23, 1900, in Ohio , Pittsburgh, Toledo and Western Railroad April 3, 1901, in West Virginia , and Pittsburgh, Carnegie and Western Railroad July 17, 1901, in Pennsylvania. Work on

3045-550: The Virginia Military Institute (VMI), was employed by Francis Mallory to build the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (N&P) and eventually became its president in the pre-Civil War era. Construction of N&P began in 1853. Mahone's innovative corduroy roadbed through the Great Dismal Swamp near Norfolk, Virginia , employed a log foundation laid at right angles beneath the surface of

3150-557: The 1904 revision of an 1882 song about the "Great Rock Island Route." Yet the name was never borne by a real train until the Wabash Railroad christened its Detroit-St. Louis day train as the Wabash Cannon Ball in 1949. The train survived until the creation of Amtrak in 1971, when it was discontinued. On October 26 and 27, 2013, Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society's Nickel Plate Road 765 , in conjunction with

3255-464: The AM&O was reorganized and renamed Norfolk and Western, a name perhaps taken from an 1850s charter application filed by citizens of Norfolk, Virginia . George Frederick Tyler became president. Frederick J. Kimball , a civil engineer and partner in E.W. Clark & Co. , became First Vice President. Henry Fink, whom Mahone had hired in 1855, became Second Vice President and General Superintendent. Kimball and his board of directors selected Big Lick,

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3360-590: The Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes and Mississippi River . In 1968, the N&W formed Dereco, a holding company that owned the Delaware & Hudson (D&H) and Erie Lackawanna (EL) railroads. Dereco's troubled railroads were not merged into the N&W: EL eventually joined Conrail and D&H was sold to Guilford Transportation Industries ; it is now part of Canadian Pacific. In 1970,

3465-695: The Depression. During World War I , the N&W was jointly operated with VGN under the USRA 's wartime takeover of the Pocahontas Roads. The operating efficiencies were significant, and after the war, when the railroads were returned to their respective owners and competitive status, the N&W never lost sight of the VGN and its low-gradient routing through Virginia. N&W meanwhile during World War 2 used their J's, K1's, A Class, and S1 Switchers to handle

3570-497: The French name for the river, Ouabache . French traders named the river after the native Miami tribe 's word for the river. The Wabash Railroad resulted from numerous mergers or acquisitions as shown by this table: The name Wabash Railroad or Wabash Railway may refer to various corporate entities formed over the years using one or the other of these two names. The first railroad to use only Wabash and no other city in its name

3675-471: The Illinois River valley from Griggsville to Baylis had the steepest ruling grade on the Wabash, almost 2%, which required helpers in steam era. After World War II, the line was relocated to ease the grade. In 1955, passenger service was discontinued, and by 1989, the line from Maumee to Liberty Center, Ohio , was abandoned. The portion from Liberty Center to the western border of Ohio is operated by

3780-805: The N&W acquired the franchises to four other lines: the New River Railroad , Mining and Manufacturing Company, the Bluestone Railroad, and the East River Railroad. Consolidated into the New River Railroad Company, with Kimball as president, these railroads became the basis for N&W's New River Division, which was soon built from New Kanawha (near East Radford) up the west bank of the New River through Pulaski County and into Giles County to

3885-498: The N&W company offices. Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway The Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway ( reporting mark PWV ) was a railroad in the Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , and Wheeling, West Virginia , areas. Originally built as the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, a Pittsburgh extension of George J. Gould 's Wabash Railroad , the venture entered receivership in 1908, and

3990-404: The N&W continued expansion westward with its lines through the wilderness of West Virginia with the Ohio Extension, eventually extending north across the Ohio River to Columbus, Ohio by the Scioto Valley Railroad. Acquisition of other lines, including the Cincinnati, Portsmouth and Virginia Railroad (CP&V) (which it had long supported and leased) extended the N&W system west along

4095-423: The N&W operated in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa. On September 1, 1981, the N&W acquired Illinois Terminal Railroad . The N&W was also a major investor in Piedmont Airlines . Sometime in the 1980s the song "Cargo Movin' People" was written and recorded, however it never was officially released to

4200-527: The N&W's flagship passenger train, sporting a regal maroon livery with gold trim and hauled by a J Class 4-8-4 Northern Type steam locomotive, the railroad also operated a number of other passenger trains. These include: The N&W also participated in five inter-line passenger trains: The last three were unusual in that the Southern Railway operated the trains, either side of the N&W stretch between Lynchburg and Bristol. The Norfolk-bound trains arrived at Norfolk Terminal Station , which also served as

4305-400: The Nickel Plate. In 1962, the Norfolk & Western Railway filed to include the P&WV in the upcoming merger of the Nickel Plate. On October 16, 1964, the Norfolk and Western acquired the Nickel Plate. They leased the P&WV. On the other hand, the Western Maryland Railway eventually went to the competing Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1967. Following

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4410-438: The Norfolk Southern Railway's " 21st Century Steam " program, pulled a 225-mile (362-km) round-trip excursion, retracing the Cannon Ball's former route between Fort Wayne and Lafayette, Indiana. As a part of Norfolk Southern's 30th anniversary in 2012, the company painted 20 new locomotives into predecessor schemes. NS #1070, an EMD SD70ACe locomotive, was painted into the Wabash "Blue Bird" paint scheme. Several portions of

4515-428: The Ohio River to Cincinnati, Ohio , south from Lynchburg to Durham, North Carolina , and south from Roanoke to Winston-Salem, North Carolina . By the time Kimball died in 1903, the railroad had attained the basic structure it would use for more than 60 years. In 1890 the N&W bought out the Shenandoah Valley Railroad . This gave the railroad a reach north of the Potomac River and the Virginia-Maryland border, and

4620-439: The PRR to indirectly invest in other transportation companies without ICC regulation. Among the initial purchases, 72% of the P&WV was acquired. On February 11, 1931, the extension to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, opened, where the Western Maryland continued east, splitting from the West Side Belt at Pierce . This formed what came to be known as the Alphabet Route, following roughly the same plan as Gould's system but using

4725-440: The Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company (PCCC). The PCCC was later renamed the Pocahontas Land Corporation (PLC) and is now a subsidiary of NS. As the availability and fame of high-quality Pocahontas bituminous coal increased, economic forces took over. Coal operators and their employees settled dozens of towns in southern West Virginia , and in the next few years, as coal demand swelled, some of them amassed fortunes. The countryside

4830-403: The Roanoke locomotive department, in 1916 the N&W added a large terminal (one full-circle roundhouse and two half-circle roundhouses), car shops, and yard at Shaffers Crossing, west of downtown. These continued to operate after the conversion to diesel power. Because the Roanoke Shops were so large and complete, the only other heavy repair site needed was located in Portsmouth, Ohio to serve

4935-455: The Southern Railway continued as separate railroads operating under the single holding company. In 1982, the Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway and the holding company transferred the Norfolk & Western Railway to the control of the newly renamed company. The N&W's earliest predecessor was the City Point Railroad (CPRR), a 9-mile (14 km) short-line railroad formed in 1838 to extend from City Point (now part of

5040-405: The Wabash Railway. The Pennsylvania Railroad acquired loose control of the Wabash in 1927 by buying stock through its Pennsylvania Company . In 1929 the Interstate Commerce Commission charged the PRR with violating the Clayton Antitrust Act . The ruling was appealed, and in 1933 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the control was for investment only and did not violate

5145-451: The Wabash in Iowa to the Missouri state line between Council Bluffs and Blanchard, Iowa . On August 22, 1988, the line was cut back to serve only Council Bluffs. In August 1990 the remaining Iowa Southern line in Council Bluffs was sold to the Council Bluffs & Ottumwa Railroad . In May 1991 the CBOA was sold to the Council Bluffs Railway , an OmniTrax subsidiary. Iowa Interstate Railroad purchased CBR on July 1, 2006. The 66-mile route

5250-405: The Wabash name was the Wabash River , a 475-mile (764 km)-long river in the eastern United States that flows southwest from northwest Ohio near Fort Recovery , across northern Indiana to Illinois where it forms the southern portion of the Illinois-Indiana border before draining into the Ohio River , of which it is the largest northern tributary. The name Wabash is an anglicization of

5355-513: The abandonment of the Western Maryland Railway mainline from Connellsville to Cumberland, Maryland, in 1975, a connection was established between the P&WV and the B&O at a location near Connellsville called Sodom, and the P&WV's connection to the P&LE and WM was abandoned at this same time. This enabled a semblance of the old Alphabet Route to continue under the Chessie System, although on B&O lines east from Connellsville instead of WM lines. The Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad

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5460-428: The act. The Wabash Railway again entered receivership on December 1, 1931. The Wabash Railroad, controlled by the PRR, was organized in July 1941 and bought the Wabash Railway on December 1. In fall of 1960, the PRR agreed to a lease of the Wabash by the Norfolk and Western Railway . The PRR's Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad assumed control of the Wabash's Ann Arbor on December 31, 1962. On October 16, 1964,

5565-436: The beginning of the Wabash System with the rename in 1877. Later mergers and reorganizations formed the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway on November 7, 1879, and Wabash Railroad on August 1, 1889. Financier John Whitfield Bunn was one of several capitalists who were instrumental in the consolidation of the Wabash System. The first repair shops were located in Springfield, Illinois along South 9th Street. These were

5670-462: The beginning of this extension, crossing the P&WV at the southwest portal of the Wabash Tunnel under Mount Washington and running southeast and east to Clairton on the Monongahela River. After an initial denial, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the P&WV's plan to acquire the West Side Belt in December 1928. In 1929, the Pennsylvania Railroad incorporated the Pennroad Corporation as an investment and holding company. This allowed

5775-400: The city council had voted to buy back the right of way previously sold to Montoff Transportation, paying $ 10 to acquire the 100' wide by 29-mile long corridor. The stated intention was to gradually develop a trail. The report further stated that, though Montoff had the right as part of salvaging the rails to remove the bridges along the right of way, the cost to do so had been excessive. Instead,

5880-507: The city of Chillicothe sold the majority, about 30 miles (48 km), of the railroad to Seattle-based Montoff Transportation, LLC for $ 976,000. The part of the railroad that was sold had been embargoed since 2004. The city still owns the railroad to the city's industrial park and to a location just east of Chillicothe, where future development is planned. Today, the part of the railroad south of Norville has been abandoned and dismantled. On January 29, 2008, The Chillicothe City Press reported that

5985-564: The deteriorated decks, which were sufficient for light duty use such as a trail, were being left. The Moberly-to-Des Moines line consisted of the 15th & 16th Districts of the Moberly Division, with the dividing point between the two districts being Moulton , Iowa. The line had a good traffic base up until the early 1970s, when traffic began to fall off precipitously. Freight traffic included coal mined in Iowa (prior to 1960), agricultural goods, farm machinery, and paper products. A change of personnel in customer service at Des Moines brought about

6090-441: The early 1990s, NS began to look for ways to save on track outlays and maintenance, and a deal was hammered out with the Burlington Northern (BN) to share access to Des Moines over the old Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CBQ) "K Line" which paralleled the Mississippi River from Hannibal, Mo. north to Burlington, Iowa. From there, haulage rights were secured to Des Moines over the BN mainline to Albia, then northward to Des Moines on

6195-410: The east side of Decatur, Illinois , which became the primary back shops until the end of steam. By the 1920s the East Decatur Shops employed 1,500 workers, with an additional 1,000 employed in the adjacent yard and offices. In 1904, the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway was formed and acquired control of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad , giving the Wabash access to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , as

6300-401: The final step in an attempt to break the near-monopoly of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad for traffic to the east. However, the Wabash had overextended itself, and the WPT went bankrupt in 1908; it would later become part of the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway . The Wabash Railroad itself was sold at foreclosure July 21, 1915, and reorganized October 22 as

6405-461: The independent city of Hopewell, Virginia ), a port on the tidal James River , to Petersburg, Virginia , on the fall line of the shallower Appomattox River . In 1854, CPRR became part of the South Side Railroad , which connected Petersburg with Lynchburg , where it interchanged through traffic with the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T) and the James River and Kanawha Canal . William Mahone (1826–95), an 1847 engineering graduate of

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6510-403: The line after the merger, abandoned the stretch in 1988. The Bi-State Development Agency purchased the line, which is now operated by MetroLink . MetroLink light rail trains run on the portion from north of the University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL) to Grand Ave, while the north portion is now the Ted Jones Trail, which runs from Florissant Road at UMSL up to Redmond Ave., where the old junction

6615-405: The line from the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco to the Mississippi River at St. Louis (completed in 1909). Past St. Louis, Gould acquired the Wabash Railroad to Toledo . On February 1, 1901, Gould, along with Joseph Ramsey, Jr., of the Wabash and others, formed the Pittsburgh-Toledo Syndicate , a syndicate intending to extend the system to Pittsburgh. The next month, the syndicate bought

6720-423: The line was cut loose. An extension completed in 1931 connected it to the Western Maryland Railway at Connellsville, Pennsylvania , forming part of the Alphabet Route , a coalition of independent lines between the Northeastern United States and the Midwest . It was leased by the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1964 in conjunction with the N&W acquiring several other sections of the former Alphabet Route but

6825-451: The line, branching off the P&WV's line to Wheeling at Pittsburgh Junction, Ohio , began June 14, 1901. On May 7, 1904, the three companies were consolidated into the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway , to which all the syndicate properties (including the W&LE) were transferred. The first train passed through the Wabash Tunnel. It crossed the |Wabash Bridge over the Monongahela River into Pittsburgh on June 1, and passenger service into

6930-427: The line, the owner, Green Hills Rural Development, Inc. "sold" the railroad to the City of Chillicothe, MO, (all real estate, rails, tools, rolling stock and locomotives) for $ 32,500. Thereafter, the line was immediately appraised for $ 1.53 million, not including rolling stock or other tools or equipment and inventory of the short line railroad. On December 8, 2006, the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune reported that

7035-401: The main system and the Fuller Syndicate was not built. As Gould's plans affected the Pennsylvania Railroad 's business, PRR took measures to fight back. This included evicting telegraph poles owned by Gould's Western Union from PRR property. The Panic of 1907 hit Gould hard due to the high costs of building the line when all the easy routes had been taken. The Western Maryland Railroad

7140-419: The mountains of West Virginia and Rogers had already become a millionaire and a principal of Standard Oil before their partnership was formed early in the 20th century. Initially, their project was an 80-mile (130 km)-long short line railroad . After failing to establish favorable rates to interchange coal traffic with the big railroads (who shut them out through collusion), the project expanded. Rogers

7245-418: The mouth of the East River near Glen Lyn, Virginia . From there, the new line ran up the East River, crossing the Virginia-West Virginia border several times to reach the coalfields to the west near the Great Flat Top Mountain . Coal transported to Norfolk soon became NW's primary commodity, and led to great wealth and profitability. Kimball served as N&W president from 1883 to 1895. Under his leadership,

7350-446: The new Wabash Terminal began July 2, with through service over the W&LE and Wabash to Toledo, Chicago , St. Louis, and Kansas City . In addition to the Pittsburgh extension, Gould planned a line from Zanesville southeast to Belington, West Virginia , which was built by the Little Kanawha Syndicate . From Belington east to tidewater in Baltimore , the Fuller Syndicate bought the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railway and

7455-423: The newly completed railroad. That June, Booker T. Washington made a whistle-stop speaking tour on VGN, traveling in Rogers' private car, Dixie , and later revealing that Rogers had been instrumental in funding many small country schools and institutions of higher education in the South for the betterment of Black communities. VGN operated over more modern alignments than the C&O, and the N&W, and its track

7560-679: The old Albia joint trackage. A portion of the line north of Moulton was saved in order to provide access to the national rail system by the Appanoose County Community Railroad (APNC) . The last carded NS train on the Moberly-Des Moines line ran in 1994. The Moberly-to-Moulton segment in Iowa was used extensively in 1993 during the Midwestern Floods of that year, as many observers noted that it

7665-694: The old Wabash Railroad right-of-way have been converted to recreational use , including the Wabash Cannonball Trail in northwest Ohio , the Wabash Trail and Wauponsee Glacial Trail in Illinois and the Wabash Trace Nature Trail in Iowa. http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/Wabash/Wabash%20System%20Map%2010-1907.pdf Wabash Railroad System map 1907 Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway ( reporting mark NW ), commonly called

7770-490: The period from 1924 to 1938. At the end of 1925, the N&W operated 2,241 miles (3,607 km) of route on 4,429 miles (7,128 km) track; at the end of 1956 NW operated 2,132 miles (3,431 km) of route on 4,759 miles (7,659 km) of track. VGN was conceived and built by William Nelson Page and Henry Huttleston Rogers . Page had helped engineer and build the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) through

7875-581: The primary back shops from the mid-1800s to 1905. In 1873, the former shops of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern (formerly the North Missouri Railroad ) at Moberly, Missouri were inherited, which employed about 1,200 and built most of the system's freight and passenger cars. However, in 1902 President J. Ramsey Jr. announced that a new shop site was needed to handle the increased demand for repairs. Seventy-eight acres of land were purchased on

7980-501: The property of the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad, and the cost thereof constitutes a recorded indebtedness of the company to NSC. The company’s business consists solely of owning the properties subject to the lease and collecting rent thereon. Upon termination of the lease, all properties covered by the lease would be returned to Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad, together with sufficient cash and other assets to permit

8085-479: The public. It eventually made its way onto a DVD program titled Rails to Roanoke by Mark I Video in 1987. By 1996, N&W ran in most of the Midwest and Eastern states. Many N&W lines by 1998 were abandoned and some of them were never used again. However, the Norfolk to Bluefield line still exists but traffic has slowed because of its 12-mile 1.2% grade. In the 1950s, Canadian National Railway (CN) introduced

8190-544: The railroads became the primary long-distance transporter of completed automobiles, one of few commodities where the industry has been able to overcome trucking in competition. In 1980, the profitable N&W teamed up with the Southern Railway , another profitable company, to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation and it paved the way for today's Norfolk Southern Railway (formerly the Southern Railway) to compete more effectively with CSX Transportation , itself

8295-404: The same space and were easier to load and unload than the boxcars formerly used. Ever-larger auto carriers and specialized terminals were developed by NW and other railroads. The railroads were able to provide lower costs and greater protection from in-transit damage, such as that which may occur due to vandalism or weather and traffic conditions on unenclosed truck trailers. Using the autoracks,

8400-512: The swamp. It is still in use 150 years later and it withstands immense tonnages of coal traffic. Mahone married Otelia Butler , from Smithfield in Isle of Wight County, Virginia , a daughter of Robert Butler (1784–1853), a Virginia state treasurer. Popular legend has it that Otelia and William Mahone traveled along the newly completed N&P naming stations along the 52-mile (84 km) tangent between Suffolk and Petersburg from Ivanhoe ,

8505-546: The troop trains from Ohio to Norfolk, a point of embarkation. Other three were New York, San Francisco, and San Diego. However, the US Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) turned down attempts at combining the roads until 1959, when a proposed N&W-VGN merger was finally approved. The N&W also operated safely in this time, being the recipient of the Gold E. H. Harriman Award for 1938. In

8610-541: The two small railroads were merged in 1907 to form the Virginian Railway. Engineered by Page and financed almost entirely from Rogers' personal resources, VGN lines were laid on the principle that picking the best route and buying the best equipment would save operating expenses. Mark Twain spoke at VGN's dedication in Norfolk, Virginia, only 6 weeks before Rogers died in May 1909 after his only inspection trip on

8715-675: The western section of the system, which employed about 2,000 in the 1920s. These shops took the place of the roundhouse and shop at Bluefield, West Virginia . The Roanoke & Southern Railway Company was organized in 1887, succeeding separate companies called Roanoke & Southern in North Carolina and Virginia. Norfolk and Western leased the Roanoke & Southern (called the Norfolk, Roanoke & Southern Rail Road by 1896) starting in 1892 but it became part of Norfolk and Western in 1911. The N&W operated profitably through World War I and World War II and paid regular dividends throughout

8820-417: Was abandoned by NS, for rights on CN (IC). Passenger trains: This line has the highest point on the Wabash at Dumfries, Iowa (1242' above sea level). Most of the line was abandoned by N&W in 1984. The Wabash trackage between Brunswick and Council Bluffs comprised the 18th and 19th Districts, with the dividing point being Stanberry, Missouri . The Iowa Southern Railroad (ISR) took over 61.5 miles of

8925-619: Was again being considered for part of a major system—the " Fifth System " to supplement the four major players, the Pennsylvania Railroad , New York Central Railroad , Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Erie Railroad —but there was still the issue of the gap between the W&;LE/P&WV and the Western Maryland, never filled by the Little Kanawha Syndicate . The existing West Side Belt Railroad provided for

9030-478: Was also heavily damaged. William and Otelia Mahone were illustrious characters in post-bellum Virginia. Mahone got quickly to work restoring "his" N&P, and resumed his dream of linking the three trunk lines across the southern tier of Virginia to reach points to the west. He became president of all three, and drove the 1870 merger of N&P, South Side Railroad and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad to form

9135-603: Was amalgamated with the Grand Trunk in 1882. Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk and former president of the Wabash, secures a trackage rights agreement to give the Wabash operating rights in Canada. Its Canadian headquarters are located in St. Thomas because it is roughly equidistant between Detroit and Niagara Falls. The Toledo to Hannibal Line was constructed in 1855. The line out of

9240-732: Was apparently a silent partner in the early stages, and the bigger railroads did not take Page seriously. However, the partners planned and then built a "Mountains to Sea" railroad from the coal fields of southern West Virginia to port near Norfolk at Sewell's Point in the harbor of Hampton Roads . They accomplished this right under the noses of the pre-existing and much bigger C&O and N&W railroads and their leaders by forming two small intrastate railroads, Deepwater Railway , in West Virginia, and Tidewater Railway in Virginia. Once right-of-way and land acquisitions had been secured,

9345-494: Was built to the highest standards. It provided major competition for coal traffic to C&O and the N&W. The 600-mile (970 km) VGN followed Rogers' philosophy throughout its profitable history, earning the nickname "Richest Little Railroad in the World." It operated some of the largest and most powerful steam, electric, and diesel locomotives. The VGN electrified 134 miles (216 km) of its route between 1922 and 1926 at

9450-566: Was chartered in Indiana on August 19 to continue the line west through Wabash into Illinois towards St. Louis, Missouri , and the two companies merged August 4, 1856, to form the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad with a total length of 243 miles. The company soon went bankrupt and was sold at foreclosure . The Toledo and Wabash Railroad was chartered October 7, 1858, and acquired the Ohio portion October 8. The Wabash and Western Railroad

9555-611: Was chartered on September 27 and acquired the Indiana portion on October 5. On December 15, the two companies merged as the Toledo and Wabash Railway . That company merged with the Great Western Railway of Illinois , the Illinois and Southern Iowa Railroad , the Quincy and Toledo Railroad and the Warsaw and Peoria Railroad to form the final Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway . It was this group of railroads that formed

9660-567: Was due in part to its investment in the manufacturing capacity and human resources to build and operate steam locomotives, and partially due to the major commodity it hauled, coal. During the 1950s, N&W rebuilt its W Class 2-8-0 Consolidations into Shop Co W6 0-8-0Ts. In 1960, the N&W became the last major railroad in the United States to abandon steam locomotives for diesel-electric motive power. The Roanoke Shops continued to build and repair rolling stock until 2020 when Norfolk Southern closed them, ending 139 years of operations. To bolster

9765-519: Was famous for manufacturing its own steam locomotives , which were built at the Roanoke Shops , as well as its own hopper cars . After 1960, N&W was the last major Class I railroad using steam locomotives; the last remaining Y class 2-8-8-2s would eventually be retired in 1961. In December 1959, the N&W merged with the Virginian Railway (reporting mark VGN), a longtime rival in the Pocahontas coal region. By 1970, other mergers with

9870-493: Was leased in 1964 to NSC, formerly Norfolk and Western Railway Company, by the company’s predecessor for 99 years with the right of unlimited renewal for an additional 99-year period under the same terms and conditions, including annual rent payments. The lease provides that NSC, at its own expense and without deduction from the rent, will maintain, manage, and operate the leased property and make such improvements thereto as it considers desirable. Such improvements made by NSC become

9975-546: Was leased to the new spinoff Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway in 1990, just months before the N&W was merged into the Norfolk Southern Railway . The original Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway built several massive engineering works, including the Wabash Terminal in downtown Pittsburgh, damaged by two fires in 1946 and demolished in 1953. The Wabash Bridge over the Monongahela River into Pittsburgh

10080-599: Was located in Norfolk County just north of the City of Norfolk on the Elizabeth River , where one of the busiest coal export facilities in the world was built to reach Hampton Roads shipping. A residential section was also developed to house the families of the workers. Many early residents of Lambert's Point were involved in the coal industry. The company was famous for building its own steam locomotives ,

10185-534: Was located. Norfolk & Western abandoned the track between Lock Springs and Chillicothe in 1983, and salvaged this portion of the line in 1985. Thirty-seven miles of track between Chillicothe and Brunswick was sold to the Green Hills Rural Development, Inc., a Missouri economic development group organized as a non-profit corporation, in 1985. The line was leased, by order of the ICC, to

10290-587: Was one of the few north–south through routes that were "above sea level" during the flooding. Unfortunately, this was not a factor that could have been used to save the line. Today the line's right-of-way has not been preserved, and as of 1997 the line was completely dismantled and is quickly being consumed by other land uses. The Wabash had a fleet of passenger trains, including several streamliners and domeliners: The first passenger trains to be dieselised used EMD E7 locomotives, and later ALCO PAs and EMD E8s . The name of this legendary train became famous with

10395-560: Was only leased, as opposed to merged outright, the Wabash Railroad continued to trade its stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The N&W and the Southern Railway merged in 1982, although the Wabash continued to exist on paper. NS formally merged the Wabash into the N&W in November 1991. In 1897 the Wabash leases the eastern lines of the former Great Western Railway between Windsor and Buffalo, which

10500-833: Was organized in 1967 as a real estate investment trust to own the property leased to the N&W. The railroad is now a subsidiary of Power REIT , a real estate investment trust that is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol "PW". The leased properties consist of a railroad line 112 miles in length, extending from Connellsville, Washington, and Allegheny counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Brooke County in West Virginia, and Jefferson and Harrison counties in Ohio. There are also branch lines total 20 miles in length located in Washington County, Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, and Brooke County, West Virginia. The railroad

10605-510: Was soon sprinkled with tipples, coke ovens, houses for workers, company stores and churches. In the four decades before the Crash of 1929 and subsequent Depression , these coal towns flourished. One example was the small community of Bramwell, West Virginia , which in its heyday boasted the highest per capita concentration of millionaires in the country. In 1886, the N&W tracks were extended directly to coal piers at Lambert's Point , which

10710-676: Was started in the early 1890s, allowing the Wabash to give up trackage rights over the Erie (Chicago and Atlantic). Completed in 1880 from Bement to Chicago, using the Chicago & Western Indiana as a terminal line. The Wabash became a joint owner of the C&;WI along with founder Chicago & Eastern Illinois and other railroads. It comprises the 6th, 7th and 8th Districts of the Decatur Division. Trackage between Manhattan and Gibson City

10815-817: Was the Wabash Railway in January 1877 which was a rename of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway formed on July 1, 1865. The earliest predecessor of the Wabash System was the Northern Cross Railroad , which was the first railroad built in Illinois. The Toledo and Illinois Railroad was chartered April 20, 1853, in Ohio to build from Toledo on Lake Erie west to the Indiana state line. The Lake Erie, Wabash and St. Louis Railroad

10920-485: Was the first of his properties to fail, entering receivership on March 5, 1908. The Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway entered receivership on May 29 of that year, ending through traffic between Pittsburgh and the W&LE and Wabash systems. After years of operation by its receivers, the company was finally sold at foreclosure in August 1916 and reorganized November as the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway . The line

11025-529: Was torn down in 1948. On December 27, 2004, the Wabash Tunnel just southwest of the bridge opened as a high occupancy vehicle roadway through Mount Washington . As of May 2024 the two piers of the long-gone Wabash Bridge remain standing. The line included a branch to West End, Pennsylvania, abandoned in 2011, and a branch to West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, known as the Mifflin Branch. It also had

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