Misplaced Pages

#29970

87-614: The Virginian Railway ( reporting mark VGN ) was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads . Early in the 20th century, William Nelson Page , a civil engineer and coal mining manager, joined forces with a silent partner , industrialist financier Henry Huttleston Rogers (a principal of Standard Oil and one of

174-853: A Class I railroad headquartered in Atlanta. The Virginian Railway (VGN) was conceived early in the 20th century by two men. One was a civil engineer , coal mining manager, and entrepreneur, William Nelson Page. His partner was millionaire industrialist , Henry Huttleston Rogers. Together, they built a well-engineered railroad that was virtually a "conveyor belt on rails" to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port on Hampton Roads, near Norfolk, Virginia . The Virginian Railway transported coal from West Virginia Coalfields to ports in Hampton Roads. It grew in spite of competition from monopolies. While other railroads curved and went over hills to get to each town,

261-414: A railway electrification system . With work authorized beginning in 1922, a 134-mile portion of the railroad in the mountains from Mullens, West Virginia over Clark's Gap and several other major grades to Roanoke, Virginia was equipped with overhead wires supported by a catenary system at 11,000 volts. The VGN built its own power plant at Narrows, Virginia . The electrification was completed in 1925 at

348-695: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of

435-461: A Congressman, local officials, several noted authors and historians. The delegation of retirees based in Roanoke also attended. In early 2012, Norfolk Southern announced a program to paint selected units of new GE ES44AC and EMD SD70ACe orders into heritage paint schemes for predecessor roads. Virginian Railway was chosen among 19 other former railroads represented in the program. NS SD70ACe 1069

522-458: A Virginian." Today, major portions of the VGN low-gradient route are the preferred eastbound coal path for N&W's successor Norfolk Southern Railway . Other portions of VGN right-of-way in eastern Virginia now transport fresh water and are under study for future high speed passenger rail service to South Hampton Roads from Richmond and Petersburg. The former VGN property at Sewell's Point is part of

609-545: A brakeman on the Fairhaven Branch Railroad while saving his money. In 1861 he and a friend went to the mountains of Pennsylvania , and helped develop oil and natural gas resources there during the U.S. Civil War , eventually becoming one of the key men with John D. Rockefeller 's Standard Oil Trust and a multi-millionaire. One of the wealthiest men in the US, Rogers was an energetic entrepreneur, much like

696-722: A cost of $ 15 million, equal to $ 260,607,211 today. A link was established with Norfolk & Western to share electricity from its nearby electrification during contingencies. ALCO and Westinghouse supplied the electric locomotives , which were equipped with pantographs . The 36 initial units were normally linked in groups of three as one set, and had much greater load capacity than the steam power they replaced. In 1948, four huge EL-2B twin-unit locomotives were purchased, followed by twelve EL-C rectifier locomotives in 1955. The seemingly remotely located terminal Page and Rogers planned and built at Sewell's Point played an important role in 20th-century U.S. naval history. Beginning in 1917

783-534: A few industrialists (so-called " robber barons ") who controlled them. Completed in 1909, the Virginian Railway was largely financed with Rogers' personal fortune. It was a modern, well-engineered railroad with all-new infrastructure and could operate more efficiently than its larger competitors. Throughout a profitable 50-year history, VGN continued the Page-Rogers philosophy of "paying up front for

870-639: A historical marker on the site. It also became the subject of several books as well as historical fiction. Today, the Ansted–Hawks Nest Rail Trail follows the route from the Town of Ansted down the steep mountainside to near Hawks Nest Station in the New River Valley. The trail is 2.2 miles (3.5 km) in length and the aerial tram from Hawks Nest Lodge links to the terminus. Angie and George Imboden's 1830 home, Contentment, has become

957-506: A huge celebration of the new "Mountains to the Sea" railroad's completion. Rogers departed the next day on his first (and only) tour of the new railroad. He died suddenly six weeks later at the age of 69 at his home in New York. By then, the work of the Page-Rogers partnership to build the Virginian Railway had been completed. While neither William Page or Henry Rogers operated the railway, it

SECTION 10

#1732773151030

1044-464: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated

1131-583: A man who knew "the land as a farmer knows his fields." He was also an energetic entrepreneur. Author H. Reid summed it up by labeling Col. Page "The idea man from Ansted." Henry Huttleston Rogers (1840–1909) was a financier and industrialist who was raised in Fairhaven , Massachusetts , the son of Rowland Rogers, a former ship captain, bookkeeper, and grocer. He began working while young, working part-time in his father's grocery store and delivering newspapers. After graduating from high school, Rogers worked as

1218-505: A marvelous new railroad which remained closely held until 1937; his son and sons-in-law such as Urban H. Broughton and William R. Coe were among its leaders. Coe served almost its entire history. Throughout that profitable 50-year history, the VGN continued to follow the Page-Rogers policy of "paying up front for the best." It became particularly well known for treating its employees and vendors well, another investment that paid rich dividends. The VGN sought (and achieved) best efficiencies in

1305-700: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on

1392-912: A private residence, the Page-Vawter House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Other historical landmarks include the Halfway House , the former Tyree's Tavern which was headquarters of the Chicago Gray Dragoons during the American Civil War , and the African American Heritage Family-Tree Museum, which helps African-Americans trace their roots. The grave of Julia Neale Jackson, mother of Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson ,

1479-607: A rural location where a new coal pier was located on the harbor near Norfolk . Late in 1906, near the halfway point on the Tidewater Railway between Roanoke and Sewell's Point, a new town with space set aside for railroad offices and shops was created in Lunenburg County, Virginia . It was named Victoria, in honor of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, who was admired by Henry Rogers. Victoria

1566-492: A strong religious orientation and ties to Chicago's Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). Many Union troops felt they were fighting the moral issue of slavery , although many Fayette County citizens had Confederate sympathies and so sent no delegate to the Wheeling Convention . Nonetheless, the area became part of the new State of West Virginia when it was formed in 1863. Local lore includes romances between

1653-504: A war memorial through donations, that has the name, rank, and period served of some local military veterans. Ansted is located at 38°8′10″N 81°6′7″W  /  38.13611°N 81.10194°W  / 38.13611; -81.10194 (38.136029, -81.101951). According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 1.67 square miles (4.33 km ), of which 1.66 square miles (4.30 km )

1740-995: Is in use as a museum. Similar plans are underway by the local chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Roanoke for the Virginian Railway Passenger Station . The Oak Hill Railroad Depot in Oak Hill, West Virginia , the only remaining Virginian station in West Virginia, has also been restored by the local chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. In May 2003, the Virginian Railway Yard Historic District at Princeton

1827-534: Is land and 0.01 square miles (0.03 km ) is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 1,404 people, 589 households, and 395 families living in the town. The population density was 845.8 inhabitants per square mile (326.6/km ). There were 697 housing units at an average density of 419.9 per square mile (162.1/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 96.7% White , 2.7% African American , 0.2% Native American , 0.1% from other races , and 0.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.9% of

SECTION 20

#1732773151030

1914-600: Is located in Westlake Cemetery in Ansted. The marker was placed more than 35 years after her death by Capt. Thomas Davis Ranson , one of the soldiers of the Stonewall Brigade , to mark his troops' affection for their fallen leader. Ansted has the distinction of having Hawks Nest State Park located within its borders. The park at Hawks Nest features a small museum and gift shop, an aerial tram ride to

2001-482: Is now southern West Virginia was long a hunting ground for nomadic tribes of Native-Americans before the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century. Around 1790, the area now known as Ansted was settled by a group of Baptists who did not hold legal title to the land. These people were known as "squatters", and built the Hopewell Baptist Church nearby. In 1792, a 400-acre (1.6 km ) tract of land in

2088-489: Is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by the railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by

2175-465: The 18th Virginia Cavalry ) laid out the town. Imboden had begun speculating in coal lands in southern West Virginia after the war's end, and attracted British investors. Dr. Ansted, a noted geologist, had been engaged to investigate the region's potential for coal deposits, and his report far exceeded Imboden's best expectations. Ansted and Imboden bought more than a thousand acres (4 km ) of coal and timber land on Gauley Mountain between Hawks Nest and

2262-602: The James and Kanawha Rivers . The area was known at that time as Mountain Cove. At various times, it has also been known as Woodville, New Haven, and Westlake. During the American Civil War , Fayette County became strategic for both Union and Confederate efforts. Nearby Gauley Bridge , a covered bridge carrying the James River and Kanawha Turnpike , was taken and retaken three times in 1861 and 1862; its spectacular burning

2349-678: The Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W). While the bigger railroads were preoccupied in developing nearby areas and shipping coal via rail to Hampton Roads, Page formed a plan to take advantage of the undeveloped coal lands, with Rogers and several others as investors. A powerful partnership had been formed. Originally, the Page-Rogers scheme was a short line railroad , the Deepwater Railway , formed in 1898, an intrastate line intended to be only in West Virginia. Eventually, after establishing relationships to interchange coal traffic with

2436-481: The Tidewater Railway . In this name, they secured the right-of-way needed all the way across Virginia to reach Hampton Roads , where a new coal pier was erected at Sewell's Point . The two projects were legally joined and renamed the Virginian Railway in early 1907. Despite efforts to stop them, they then built the "Mountains to Sea" railroad under the noses of the big railroads and the elite group of

2523-557: The U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of the AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with

2610-560: The narrow gauge railroad and contracted with William Page to do the work to upgrade the line to standard gauge , which was completed on August 20, 1890. The (C&O) operated the new branch line, which was known as the Hawks Nest Subdivision, from 1890 until 1972. It connected with the New River Subdivision main line at Hawks Nest Station and consisted of 3.44 miles (5.54 km) of line to and beyond

2697-571: The 100th anniversary of the 1907 founding of their favorite railroad, the Virginian Railway. In April 2005, the Virginian Railway Coalfield Seminar was held for three days at Twin Falls State Park, near Mullens, West Virginia. Railfriends from many parts of the United States toured coal mining and railroad facilities for three days on several buses, and participated in presentations and group seminars with

Virginian Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue

2784-500: The 1950s, consisted of separate runs from Page, West Virginia to Roanoke; and then between August, 1952 and July, 1955, from Roanoke to Norfolk. The last remaining passenger service on the line was discontinued by 1956. The latter route was on a more southerly and more rural itinerary than mainline of the Virginian's major competitor, Norfolk and Western, whose main line went through Lynchburg and Petersburg. During World War I , VGN

2871-513: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and

2958-539: The 3000 workers building the tunnel were asked to mine the silica they encountered for use in steel production. Never given protective equipment (although managers wore protective breathing apparatus during visits), hundreds developed silicosis , some so severe that they died within a year. After congressional hearings, the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster led to recognition of occupational lung disease as well as compensation legislation, as acknowledged by

3045-591: The Contentment Historical Complex, headquarters for the Fayette County Historical Society. It includes a historical museum and restored one-room schoolhouse, furnished as the mid-nineteenth century. The mansion of William and Emma Page and their family on the hilltop in Ansted also still stands as evidence of the once-thriving coal business. Later occupied by the family of Dr. Gene Vawter , and still in use as

3132-805: The New River Gorge, and spectacular overlooks including the famous " Lover's Leap ". U.S. Route 60 threads through the community as part of the Midland Trail , a National Scenic Byway . Ansted hosts the Country Roads Festival each September and the Festival of Lights over the Christmas holiday season, a time when the Fayetteville theater produces an annual holiday play. Ansted also hosted annual Street Luge PRO-AM in

3219-490: The Tidewater Railway in Virginia into a single interstate railroad, only a few months after Victoria was incorporated. On April 15, 1907, William Nelson Page became the first president of the new Virginian Railway. Work progressed on the VGN throughout 1907 and 1908 using construction techniques not available when the larger railroads had been built about 25 years earlier. By paying for work with Henry Rogers' personal fortune,

3306-605: The US Naval Station, Norfolk . Although one of the smaller fallen flags of U.S. railroads, the Virginian Railway continues to have a loyal following of former employees, modelers, authors, photographers, historians and preservationists. Preservationists have saved VGN passenger stations in Suffolk and Roanoke, Virginia. The Suffolk Passenger Station, which was also used by the Seaboard railroads, has been restored and

3393-618: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between

3480-528: The Virginian Railway. However, the US Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) turned down attempts at combining the roads until the late 1950s, when a proposed Norfolk & Western Railway and Virginian Railway merger was approved in 1959. Electric operation ended June 30, 1962. Two years after the merger, a book written by author and historian H. Reid , The Virginian Railway , was published. Reid stated that "There will always be

3567-733: The Virginian was built mostly for coal and was built as straight and steady in grade as possible. William Nelson Page (1854–1932) was a civil engineer and entrepreneur. Page, who was born in Virginia and educated at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville , originally came to West Virginia in the 1870s to help build the double-track Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) in the New and Kanawha River Valleys. A colorful man by all accounts, Colonel Page, as he came to be known, soon became involved in many coal and related enterprises in

Virginian Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue

3654-541: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,

3741-421: The age of 18 living with them, 50.4% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.9% were non-families. 29.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.95. In the town, the population was spread out, with 23.1% under

3828-460: The age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 19.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.9 males. The median income for a household in the town was $ 25,028, and the median income for a family was $ 28,938. Males had a median income of $ 25,682 versus $ 17,500 for females. The per capita income for

3915-542: The area was patented to Charles Skaggs. Named in honor of the Marquis de la Fayette , a major hero of the American Revolutionary War , Fayette County , Virginia was created in 1831. The first county court was held that same year at Miles Manser 's general store which stood nearby Ansted's current location along the James River and Kanawha Turnpike , an early roadway built to connect the canals on

4002-544: The best." It achieved best efficiencies in the mountains, rolling piedmont, and flat tidewater terrain. Known for operating some of the largest and best steam, electric, and diesel motive power, it was nicknamed "Richest Little Railroad in the World." Merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1959, a large portion of the former VGN remains in service in the 21st century for the Norfolk Southern Railway ,

4089-759: The bigger railroads failed, the Deepwater's right-of-way was extended to reach the West Virginia-Virginia state line near Glen Lyn, Virginia . Important points on the Deepwater Railway were Page , Mullens and Princeton in West Virginia. In Virginia, another intrastate railroad, the Tidewater Railway , was formed in 1904, with right-of-way across the southern tier of Virginia from Giles County (which borders West Virginia) to Norfolk County on Hampton Roads. The principal points were Roanoke , Victoria , Suffolk , and Sewell's Point ,

4176-412: The end of 1925 VGN operated 545 route-miles on 902 miles of track; at the end of 1956 mileages were 611 and 1089. The following are the major stations and crossings on the Virginian Railway's 436 mile main line : Beginning in 1903 Page, West Virginia , named for Col. William Page, was the site of a switching yard, roundhouse, and station on the Deepwater Railway and later the Virginian Railway. After

4263-1020: The equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses the reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns the Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service

4350-535: The event. In October 2004, the Roanoke Times ran a feature story about the weekly meetings of the "Takin' Twenty with the Virginian Brethren" group of retired VGN employees, prominently displaying the model of a modern GE locomotive in Virginian Railway livery, which they hope the railroad will use as a basis for a special painting of current-day Norfolk Southern Railway locomotive to commemorate

4437-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with

SECTION 50

#1732773151030

4524-581: The former Jamestown Exposition grounds adjacent to the VGN coal pier was an important facility for the United States Navy . The VGN transported the high quality "smokeless" West Virginia bituminous coal favored by the US Navy for its ships, though all ships not built for fuel oil were converted to fuel oil well before WW II. In the mid-1950s VGN management realized that the company's devotion to coal as its energy source (for steam locomotives and

4611-428: The former Princeton (WV) Shops, was moved to newly laid rails at Victoria, where it is the centerpiece of a new rail heritage park, dedicated in summer 2005. In May 2003 a Gathering of Rail Friends was held at Victoria, Virginia, home to a museum, with a park with historical interpretations of the roundhouse and turntable sites under development. The Norfolk Southern Railway sent its exhibition train to nearby Crewe for

4698-530: The growth of the town's businesses. His second wife, Angie, renamed their family home " Contentment " because she and her family spent many happy hours there. Contentment had been built about 1830 on the James River and Kanawha Turnpike in the west end of what is now Ansted, and they acquired it in 1872. Another of the town's more well-known residents was William Nelson Page , (1854–1932). A civil engineer , protégé of Dr. Ansted, and mining manager, Page helped develop West Virginia's rich bituminous coal fields in

4785-404: The late 1990s, a competition on the largest hill in the area, Gauley Mountain. The course was a mile long with a 90 degree turn at the base of the mountain. The Mystery Hole is a attraction where mysterious things are said to happen such as making brooms stand on their bristles year round. In the early 2000s the county's largest flagpole and American Flag was built in the town, which added in 2007

4872-531: The late 19th and early 20th century. Page also was co-founder and builder of the Virginian Railway . In 1898, on a knoll in the middle of town, Page had a palatial mansion built by Gauley Mountain Coal Company carpenters, where he and his wife Emma Gilham Page raised their four children. Like Colonel Imboden, William Page also served as Ansted's mayor for 10 years, although his title of "Colonel"

4959-592: The letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example, the TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example, the reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns

5046-475: The local girls and the young soldiers from Illinois . Some couples married, built homes and raised families in the Mountain State after hostilities ended. Around 1872, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway added a new line, on both sides of the narrow New River valley, creating a through route to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers . The final spike in this portion of the C&O was placed at Hawks Nest Station, just below Ansted, on January 29, 1873. Also in 1873,

5133-514: The mountains of Virginia and West Virginia, settling in the tiny mountain hamlet of Ansted in Fayette County, West Virginia . Col. Page was one of the more successful men who developed West Virginia's rich bituminous coal fields in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and built railroads to transport the coal. With his training and experience as a civil engineer, Page was well prepared to utilize southern West Virginia's resources. Former West Virginia Governor William A. MacCorkle described him as

5220-535: The mountains, rolling piedmont and flat tidewater terrain. The profitable VGN experimented with the finest and largest steam, electric, and diesel locomotives . It was well known for operating the largest and best equipment, and could afford to. It became nicknamed "the richest little railroad in the world." The VGN had a very major grade at Clark's Gap , West Virginia , and tried large steam locomotives before turning to an alternative already in use by one of its neighboring competitors, Norfolk & Western Railway:

5307-444: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If

SECTION 60

#1732773151030

5394-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and

5481-440: The population. There were 589 households, of which 26.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.1% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 32.9% were non-families. 30.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size

5568-477: The power plant at Narrows for the electrification system) was becoming overshadowed by the economies of diesel-electric locomotives and a scarcity of parts for the older steam locomotives. Between 1954 and 1957 a total of 66 diesel-electric locomotives were purchased, including 25 Fairbanks-Morse H-24-66 Train Masters, and 40 H-16-44 smaller road switchers, two with steam generators to haul passenger trains. The last steam locomotive operated in June, 1957. At

5655-420: The railroad eliminated steam locomotives in 1957 and the area's coal mines were largely depleted, the facilities at Page were unneeded. Mullens and Princeton in West Virginia, and Roanoke , Victoria and Sewell's Point in Virginia were other locations where extensive steam locomotive servicing facilities and roundhouses were also no longer needed after 1957. The passenger trains in the system's final decade,

5742-474: The railway was built with no public debt. This feat, a key feature of the successful secrecy in securing the route, was not accomplished without some considerable burden to Rogers. Rogers suffered some financial setbacks in the Financial Panic of 1907 which began in March. Then, a few months later that year, he experienced a debilitating stroke. He was largely disabled for five months. Rogers recovered his health, at least partially, and saw to it that construction

5829-437: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Ansted, West Virginia Ansted is a town in Fayette County in the U.S. state of West Virginia . The population was 1,404 at the 2010 census . It is situated on high bluffs along U.S. Route 60 on a portion of the Midland Trail (a National Scenic Byway ) near Hawks Nest overlooking the New River far below. The area of what

5916-444: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between

6003-468: The remaining active line in West Virginia between Maben and Deepwater and operate it under the Kanawha River Railroad (KNWA) to load trains from Norfolk Southern at three mines on their system. The section between Maben and Mullens remains under Norfolk Southern control, with trackage rights for KNWA trains to interchange with NS at Elmore Yard. Reporting mark In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters,

6090-416: The state's authority. Passenger service then began and continued until some time in the 1930s. The branch line's freight rail service ended in 1972 and the tracks were removed. Also in the 1930s, developers of hydroelectric power for the Union Carbide plant at Alloy, West Virginia , the Kanawha and New River Power Company, decided to divert the New River through a three-mile tunnel under Hawks Nest. Many of

6177-422: The town of Ansted was created and named after British scientist and geologist , Dr. David T. Ansted (1814–1880), who in 1853, mapped out the nearby seams of high grade bituminous coal and once owned the land under the town. Former Confederate Colonel George W. Imboden , a wealthy lawyer from Augusta County, Virginia and brother of Confederate General John D. Imboden (under whom George Imboden fought with

6264-619: The town of Ansted. The line had one of the steepest grades of any C&O branch, a 4.17% grade. C & O did not want to transport passengers on the line, but the State of West Virginia ordered it to do so as a condition of licensing. The company appealed to the United States Supreme Court , which in Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company v. Public Service Commission of State of West Virginia , 242 U.S. 603 (1917), upheld

6351-600: The town of Westlake. They organized the Gauley-Kanawha Coal Company, Ltd., in 1872 and in 1873 opened a mine about 1,000 feet (300 m) above the river and 300 feet (91 m) below the summit of Gauley Mountain. The company changed its name to Hawks Nest Coal Company, Ltd., in 1875, and was reorganized in bankruptcy in 1889 as the Gauley Mountain Coal Company. Colonel Imboden, who was Ansted's first mayor , helped stimulate

6438-442: The town. The population density was 940.3 inhabitants per square mile (362.2/km ). There were 708 housing units at an average density of 422.4 per square mile (162.7/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 96.13% White , 3.17% African American , 0.13% Native American , and 0.57% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.51% of the population. There were 631 households, out of which 31.2% had children under

6525-551: The wealthiest men in the world), to develop the Deepwater Railway , a modest 85-mile long short line railroad to access untapped bituminous coal reserves in some of the most rugged sections of southern West Virginia. When Page was blocked by collusion of the bigger railroads, who refused to grant reasonable rates to interchange the coal traffic, he did not quit. As he continued building the original project, to provide their own link, using Rogers' resources and attorneys they quietly incorporated another intrastate railroad in Virginia,

6612-490: The younger Page, and was also involved in many rail and mineral development projects. Rogers became acquainted with Page while the latter was president of Gauley Mountain Coal Company, among many other ventures. Page knew of rich untapped bituminous coal fields lying between the New River Valley and the lower Guyandotte River in southern West Virginia in an area not yet reached by C&O and its major competitor,

6699-430: Was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.80. The median age in the town was 47 years. 19.6% of residents were under the age of 18; 6.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 21.5% were from 25 to 44; 29.2% were from 45 to 64; and 23.2% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 47.2% male and 52.8% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,576 people, 631 households, and 436 families living in

6786-430: Was arguably a crowning achievement for each man. Together, they had conceived and built a modern, well-engineered railroad from the coal mines of West Virginia to tidewater at Hampton Roads. The Virginian Railway operated more efficiently than its larger competitors, had all-new infrastructure, and no debt. It was an accomplishment unparalleled in US railroading, before or since. Mr. Rogers left his heirs and employees with

6873-482: Was continued on the railroad until it was completed early in 1909. The last spike in the Virginian Railway was driven on January 29, 1909, at the west side of the massive New River Bridge at Glen Lyn , near where the railroad crossed the West Virginia- Virginia state line. In April 1909, Henry Huttleston Rogers and Mark Twain , old friends, returned to Norfolk, Virginia together once again for

6960-467: Was funded by sale of handmade models and contributions. In April 2004 children of Boonsboro Elementary School in nearby Bedford, Virginia and the local Kiwanis group in Lynchburg, Virginia teamed to raise funds and work to save the railroad's only surviving original (circa 1910) class C-1 wooden caboose. In December 2004, a fully restored and equipped VGN caboose, C-10 No. 342, built by VGN employees in

7047-500: Was honorific (despite post-war involvement in the West Virginia State Militia). The railroad towns of Page and Pageton in West Virginia were named for him. Ansted had railroad service from 1874 until 1972. In 1874, mine owners had a narrow-gauge railroad built from Hawks Nest Station up the ravine of Mill Creek. A saddleback locomotive was used. In 1889, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) purchased

7134-580: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When

7221-587: Was jointly operated with its adjacent competitor, the Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W), under the USRA 's wartime takeover of the Pocahontas Roads. The operating efficiencies were significant. After the war, the railroads were returned to their respective owners and competitive status. However, N&W never lost sight of VGN and its low-grade routing through Virginia. After World War I there were many attempts by C&O, N&W, and others to acquire

7308-598: Was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Three of VGN's locomotives and numerous cabooses and other rolling stock survive. One steam and one electric locomotive have been cosmetically restored, and are on display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia . In October 2002 VGN authors and enthusiasts restored the Mullens, West Virginia Caboose Museum which had been ravaged in one of West Virginia's notorious floods. The work

7395-576: Was long-remembered in the community. During the winter of 1861–62, the Union Army's Chicago Gray Dragoons (later, Companies H and I of the 12th Illinois Cavalry ) made the Halfway House (Tyree Tavern) in what is now Ansted their headquarters. Confederate General Robert E. Lee maintained headquarters on nearby Sewell Mountain , where he first met " Traveller ", whom Lee later purchased, becoming his most famous horse. The Chicago Dragoons had

7482-473: Was painted to match the original yellow and black paint scheme worn by VGN's Fairbanks-Morse diesels. As of June 2023, the engine is in Altoona, PA being repainted with fresh paint. In 2015, a portion of the former Virginian in the state of West Virginia, was mothballed by Norfolk Southern due to a decline in coal shipments. In May 2016, WATCO Companies entered an agreement with Norfolk Southern to lease most of

7569-425: Was the location of a large equipment maintenance operation, with roundhouse, turntable, coaling and water facilities for servicing steam locomotives, and a large yard. Offices for the VGN's Norfolk Division were built by adding a second floor to the passenger station building a few years later. The Virginian Railway Company was formed in Virginia on March 8, 1907, to combine the Deepwater Railway in West Virginia and

#29970