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The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
and
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless"
bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...
from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads.


History

Early in the 20th century, William Nelson Page, a
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
and coal mining manager, joined forces with a silent partner, industrialist financier Henry Huttleston Rogers (a principal of
Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co- ...
and one of the wealthiest men in the world), to develop the Deepwater Railway, a modest 85-mile long short line railroad to access untapped
bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...
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, the
Tidewater Railway The Tidewater Railway was formed in 1904 as an intrastate railroad in Virginia, in the United States, by William N. Page, a civil engineer and entrepreneur, and his silent partner, millionaire industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers of Standard ...
. In this name, they secured the
right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
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 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 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 The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called 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 "Precis ...
in 1959, a large portion of the former VGN remains in service in the 21st century for the
Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...
, a Class I railroad headquartered in Norfolk, near the former Virginian Railway offices in Norfolk Terminal Station.


Building the Virginian Railway

The Virginian Railway (VGN) was conceived early in the 20th century by two men. One was a
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
, coal mining manager, and entrepreneur, William Nelson Page. His partner was millionaire
industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through per ...
, 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 West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
to port on Hampton Roads, near
Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia B ...
. 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, the Virginian was built mostly for coal and was built as straight and steady in grade as possible.


Partnership: The idea man from Ansted and a self-made multi-millionaire

William Nelson Page (1854–1932) was a
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
and entrepreneur. Page, who was born in Virginia and educated at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
in
Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen ...
, originally came to West Virginia in the 1870s to help build the double-track Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) in the
New New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
and
Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its valley has been a significant industrial region of the st ...
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 the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia, settling in the tiny mountain hamlet of Ansted in
Fayette County, West Virginia Fayette County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,488. Its county seat is Fayetteville. It is part of the Beckley, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area in Southern West Virginia. Hist ...
. 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 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 A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through per ...
who was raised in Fairhaven,
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, 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 a brakeman on the Fairhaven Branch Railroad while saving his money. In 1861 he and a friend went to the mountains of
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, and helped develop oil and natural gas resources there during the
U.S. Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, eventually becoming one of the key men with John D. Rockefeller's
Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co- ...
Trust and a multi-millionaire. One of the wealthiest men in the US, Rogers was an energetic entrepreneur, much like 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, 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.


Deepwater Railway and Tidewater Railway

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 the bigger railroads failed, the Deepwater's
right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
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 Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
in West Virginia. In Virginia, another intrastate railroad, the
Tidewater Railway The Tidewater Railway was formed in 1904 as an intrastate railroad in Virginia, in the United States, by William N. Page, a civil engineer and entrepreneur, and his silent partner, millionaire industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers of Standard ...
, 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 Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...
, and Sewell's Point, a rural location where a new coal pier was located on the harbor near
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...
.


Victoria is created

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 Lunenburg County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,936. Its county seat is Lunenburg. History Lunenburg County was established on May 1, 1746, from Brunswick County. The coun ...
. It was named Victoria, in honor of
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
of the United Kingdom, who was admired by Henry Rogers. Victoria 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.


1907: Virginian railway is born

The Virginian Railway Company was formed in Virginia on March 8, 1907, to combine the Deepwater Railway in West Virginia and 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, 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 was continued on the railroad until it was completed early in 1909.


Last spike, celebrations

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 Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
state line. In April 1909, Henry Huttleston Rogers and
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...
, old friends, returned to Norfolk, Virginia together once again for 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 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.


Operating and Electrifying "the Richest Little Railroad in the World"

Mr. Rogers left his heirs and employees with 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 the mountains, rolling piedmont and flat tidewater terrain. The profitable VGN experimented with the finest and largest steam, electric, and diesel
locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...
s. 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 West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
, and tried large
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
s before turning to an alternative already in use by one of its neighboring competitors, Norfolk & Western Railway: 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 wire An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipm ...
s 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 a cost of $15 million, equal to $ today. A link was established with Norfolk & Western to share electricity from its nearby electrification during contingencies. ALCO and Westinghouse supplied the
electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or g ...
s, 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 the former
Jamestown Exposition The Jamestown Exposition was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, it ...
grounds adjacent to the VGN coal pier was an important facility for the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. The VGN transported the high quality "smokeless" West Virginia bituminous coal favored by the
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
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 the power plant at Narrows for the electrification system) was becoming overshadowed by the economies of diesel-electric
locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...
s 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 the end of 1925 VGN operated 545 route-miles on 902 miles of track; at the end of 1956 mileages were 611 and 1089.


Major stations and crossings

The following are the major stations and crossings on the Virginian Railway's 436 mile main line: * Deepwater, West Virginia *Oak Hill Junction *Mullens *Princeton *Norcross, Virginia *Merrimac * Roanoke, crossing Norfolk and Western *Altavista, crossing Southern Railway *Brookneal, crossing Norfolk and Western *Virso, crossing Southern Railway *Victoria *Alberta, crossing Seaboard Air Line Railroad *Jarratt, crossing Atlantic Coast Line Railroad *
Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...
, crossing Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Air Line Railroad *
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...


End of steam: decline at servicing points

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 the railroad eliminated
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
s in 1957 and the area's coal mines were largely depleted, the facilities at Page were unneeded. Mullens and
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
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, 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.


Merger with Norfolk & Western

During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, VGN 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 the Virginian Railway. However, the US
Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to elimina ...
(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.


Legacy

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 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 The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...
. 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 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 Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...
Passenger Station, which was also used by the Seaboard railroads, has been restored and 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 was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
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 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 Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch, the city's population was 79,009 at the 2020 census. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mounta ...
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 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 Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...
for 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 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 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 was painted to match the original yellow and black paint scheme worn by VGN's Fairbanks-Morse diesels. 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 the remaining active line in West Virginia between Maben and Deepwater and operate it under the
Kanawha River Railroad The Kanawha River Railroad is a common-carrier railroad in the United States. A subsidiary of Watco, it leases 309 miles of track in the US states of Ohio and West Virginia from Norfolk Southern. The KNWA also operates an additional 6 miles of tr ...
(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.


Museums and stations

* Oak Hill, West Virginia - restored VGN freight station * Mullens, West Virginia - VGN Caboose 307 Museum * Princeton, West Virginia - Replica Station and Museum * Roanoke, Virginia - Virginia Museum of Transportation – 2 VGN locomotives, misc. rolling stock, and restored VGN freight station (from Ellett) * Roanoke, Virginia - Preservation of VGN Passenger Station and Future Museum *
Victoria, Virginia Victoria is an incorporated town in Lunenburg County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,725 at the 2010 census, which was down from the 1,821 reported in 2000. History Lunenburg County in the Southside region was established on M ...
- Fully restored and equipped VGN caboose 342 and Museum *
Suffolk, Virginia Suffolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as such has no county. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,324. It is the 9th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia by boundary land area a ...
- restored Seaboard and VGN combination station, Museum and model train layout of Suffolk area circa 1940 * Norfolk Terminal Station - the Virginian Railway's eastern terminus, the Norfolk and Western's headquarters, demolished, 1963


See also

* Railroad electrification in the United States


References


Books

* Barger, Ralph L. (1983) ''Corporate History of Coal & Coke Railway Co., Charleston, Clendennin & Sutton R.R., Roaring Creek & Belington R.R. Co., as of Date of Valuation, June 30, 1918.''
Baltimore, MD Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...
: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Historical Society. *Cartlidge, Oscar (1936) ''Fifty Years of Coal Mining''
Charleston, WV Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...
: Rose City Press. *Conley, Phil (1960) ''History of the Coal Industry of West Virginia'' Charleston, WV: Educational Foundation. *Conley, Phil (1923) ''Life in a West Virginia Coal Field'' Charleston, WV: American Constitutional Association. *Corbin, David Alan (1981) ''Life, Work and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880–1922''
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
:
University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic proje ...
. *Corbin, David Alan, editor (1990) ''The West Virginia Mine Wars: An Anthology'' Charleston, WV: Appalachian Editions. *Craigo, Robert W., editor (1977) ''The New River Company: Mining Coal and Making History, 1906–1976'' Mount Hope, WV: New River Company. *Dix, Keith (1977) ''Work Relations in the Coal Industry: The Hand Loading Era, 1880–1930''
Morgantown, WV Morgantown is a city in and the county seat of Monongalia County, West Virginia, United States, situated along the Monongahela River. The largest city in North-Central West Virginia, Morgantown is best known as the home of West Virginia Universit ...
: West Virginia University Institute for Labor Studies. *Dixon, Thomas W Jr., (1994) ''Appalachian Coal Mines & Railroads''. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. *Frazier, Claude Albee (1992) ''Miners and Medicine: West Virginia Memories'' Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. *Huddleston, Eugene L, PhD (2002) ''Appalachian Conquest'',
Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch, the city's population was 79,009 at the 2020 census. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mounta ...
: TLC Publishing Inc. *Lambie, Joseph T. (1954) ''From Mine to Market: The History of Coal Transportation on the Norfolk and Western Railway'' New York:
New York University Press New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University. History NYU Press was founded in 1916 by the then chancellor of NYU, Elmer Ellsworth Brown. Directors * Arthur Huntington Nason, 1916–1 ...
*Lane, Winthrop David (1921) ''Civil War in West Virginia: A Story of the Industrial Conflict in the Coal Mines'' New York, NY: B. W. Huebsch, Inc. *Lewis, Lloyd D. (1992) ''The Virginian Era''. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. *Lewis, Lloyd D. (1994) ''Norfolk & Western and Virginian Railways in Color by H. Reid''. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. *MacCorkle, William (1928) ''The Recollections of Fifty Years'' New York City: G. P. Putnam's Sons Publishing *Middleton, William D. (1974) ''When The Steam Railroads Electrified'' (1st ed.).
Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...
: Kalmbach Publishing Co. *Reid, H. (1961). ''The Virginian Railway'' (1st ed.). Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Co. *Reisweber, Kurt (1995) ''Virginian Rails 1953–1993'' (1st ed.) Old Line Graphics. *Sullivan, Ken, editor (1991) The Goldenseal Book of the West Virginia Mine Wars: Articles Reprinted from Goldenseal Magazine, 1977–1991. Charleston: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co. *Striplin, E. F. Pat. (1981) ''The Norfolk & Western : a history'' Roanoke, Va. : Norfolk and Western Railway Co. *Tams, W. P. (1963) ''The Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia'' Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Library. *Thoenen, Eugene D. (1964) ''History of the Oil and Gas Industry in West Virginia'' Charleston, WV: *Traser, Donald R. (1998) ''Virginia Railway Depots''. Old Dominion Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. *various contributors (1968). ''Who Was Who in America'' Volume I (7th ed.). New Providence, New Jersey:
Marquis Who's Who Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...
*Wiley, Aubrey and Wallace, Conley (1985). ''The Virginian Railway Handbook''. Lynchburg, Virginia: W-W Publications.


Periodical, business, and on-line publications

*Beale, Frank D. (1955) ''The Virginian Railway Company 45th Annual Report Year Ended December 31, 1954''. published in-house *Cuthriell, N.L. (1956) ''Coal On The Move Via The Virginian Railway'', reprinted with permission of Norfolk Southern Corporation in 1995 by Norfolk & Western Historical Society, Inc. *Dept. of the Navy – (2004) ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships – article on steamship William N. Page''. Washington DC: US Naval Historical Center *Doyle, Lee P. "The Virginia Railway Electrification", ''Ohio State Engineer, The'', Vol. 9, No. 2 (January 1926), pp. 11–13 and 38
Retrieved
on 3/1/2011. Describes original electrification of Virginian Main Line. *Huddleston, Eugene L, PhD (1992) ''National Railway Bulletin'' Vol. 57, Number 4, article: ''Virginian: Henry Huttleston Rogers' Questionable Achievement'' *Morton, R.B. "Arrangements of Feeders and Equipment for Electrified Railways", ''American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Transactions of the'', Vol 47, Issue 4, pp. 1297–1301, 1928. Discusses topology of electrification feeders. *Reid, H. (1953) "''Trains & Travel Magazine''" December 1953 "Some Fine Engines", Kalmbach Publishing Co. *Skaggs, Geoffery – (1985) ''Page-Vawter House Project in Ansted'' Ansted, WV: Fayette County Government {{Authority control Defunct Virginia railroads Defunct West Virginia railroads Mining railways in the United States Former Class I railroads in the United States Predecessors of the Norfolk and Western Railway Coal mining in Appalachia Logan Coalfield Railway companies established in 1907 Railway companies disestablished in 1959