Tidewater Railway

The Tidewater Railway was formed in 1904 as an intrastate railroad located 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 Oil fame. It was formed with the intention of creating an outlet to Hampton Roads to export coal mined along their older West Virginia short-line, the Deepwater Railway.

In 1907, the Tidewater Railway formally joined its sister Deepwater Railway, and together, they became the Virginian Railway, a "Mountains to Sea" engineering marvel of its day built right under the noses of the pre-existing big railroads.

Contents
1 Untapped wealth: West Virginia bituminous coal
2 Deepwater Railway vs. the big railroads
3 Intrastate Railroads: working within each state
4 Establishing right-of-way across Virginia to Hampton Roads
5 A coup at Sewell's Point
6 The common enemy with deep pockets
7 Henry Rogers steps forward
8 Victoria is created
9 Tidewater changes its name
10 See Also
11 References

11.1 Books
11.2 Periodical, business, and on-line publications

12 External links

Untapped wealth: West Virginia bituminous coal

Beginning in 1898, Page had been involved with a scheme in West Virginia to take advantage 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 the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) and its major competitor, the Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W). While the bigger railroads were preoccupied developing nearby areas and shipping coal via rail to Hampton Roads, he formed a plan to take advantage of the undeveloped coal lands, and got Rogers and several others to invest in it.

Deepwater Railway vs. the big railroads

Page purchased the remote land in the name of Loup Creek Colliery. To access it, he acquired a small existing logging railroad, and converted and expanded it to become the Deepwater Railway. The company's charter called for the new short-line railroad to connect with the existing lines of the C&O along the Kanawha River at Deepwater, West Virginia, and the N&W at Matoaka, West Virginia. The total distance involved was about 80 miles, through some of the most rugged terrain of West Virginia. By planning interchange points with the two large railroads, Page thought he could anticipate competition and negotiation of fair rates.

As Page developed the short-line Deepwater Railway, he ran into an unexpected brick wall when attempting to negotiate connections and share favorable rates with either of the larger railroads. It was later revealed that the leaders of both the C&O and the N&W considered the territory to be potentially theirs for future growth. It was the age of the notorious and powerful robber barons of the industrial era. In those days before US anti-trust laws were created, both the C&O and N&W were essentially under the common control of the even larger Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC), whose leaders, Alexander Cassatt and William Vanderbilt respectively, had secretly entered into a "community of interests pact." The C&O and the N&W therefore refused to negotiate with Page and his upstart Deepwater Railway.

William Page didn't give up as apparently was anticipated. Instead, he stubbornly continued building his short-line railroad through some of the most rugged terrain of West Virginia, to the increasing puzzlement of the big railroads. They were unaware that one of Page's investors (who were silent partners in the venture) was the powerful Rogers, who wasn't about to have the investment foiled by the big railroads. Instead, he and Page set about secretly planning and securing their own route out of the mountains and across Virginia to Hampton Roads, and the Tidewater Railway was conceived to link with the Deepwater Railway, and create their own "Mountains To Sea" railroad.

Intrastate Railroads: working within each state

In 1904, the Page-Rogers interests had another intrastate railroad company, the Tidewater Railway, chartered in Virginia to be used for the portion of their project to be in that state. The headquarters were in Staunton, where one of Rogers' lawyers, Thomas D. Ranson, was based and Col. Page had relatives.

In those days, railroad and real estate attorneys generally practiced in only one state, with land matters (such as right-of-way) generally handled in county courts. Apparently because the Deepwater in West Virginia and Tidewater in Virginia were each under the jurisdiction of their respective states, a link between the two little railroads was not identified initially by the various lawyers for the C&O and the N&W.

Establishing right-of-way across Virginia to Hampton Roads

In his book The Virginian Railway (Kalmbach, 1961), author H. Reid described some of the tactics used to determine and establish a route for the Tidewater Railway. On a Sunday in February, 1905, a group of 35 surveyors from New York disguised themselves as fishermen and rode to the location aboard a N&W passenger train. While they stood in icy water apparently "fishing" with their transit poles, the surveyors mapped out a crossing of the New River at Glen Lyn, Virginia, as well as the adjacent portion of the line from West Virginia through Narrows, Virginia. After crossing the U.S. Eastern Continental Divide near Merrimac, Virginia, the new line essentially followed the valley of the Roanoke River through the water gap formed by the river in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and then was to run almost due east to the Hampton Roads area.

Deals were quietly struck with the various communities all along the way. Many were small towns and villages that had been passed by when the big railroads were building 20-25 years earlier. The City of Roanoke, home to the headquarters of the N&W, donated a right-of-way through the city along the north bank of the Roanoke River.

A coup at Sewell's Point

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Aerial view looking east of Virginian Railway coal piers at Sewell's Point, Virginia. The original 1909 pier is at the left. The larger pier to the right was completed in 1925.

Perhaps most notable of all of the communities which helped make the new railroad possible was the City of Norfolk, Virginia.

Norfolk & Western's coal pier and huge storage yards were at Lambert's Point near downtown Norfolk. Other big railroads, C&O, Seaboard Air Line, Atlantic Coast Line, and a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary, had established facilities nearby as well.

Access to Hampton Roads frontage and space to build a new coal pier was crucial to the whole scheme. However, it was also very important that the big railroads not learn of the plans, or surely they would attempt to interfere.

The solution was found at an unlikely location: isolated and somewhat desolate Sewell's Point in a rural area near the mouth of Hampton Roads.

To reach Sewell's Point from Suffolk, the Tidewater Railway was plotted to run about 15 miles to the east, staying well south of the downtown Portsmouth and Norfolk harbor areas (and the other railroads). After reaching South Norfolk, the new railroad would begin a wide 180' counter-clockwise loop to the north. Trains would actually heading west when reaching Hampton Roads.

To enable the necessary routing, Norfolk's civic leaders provided a right-of-way around their city. Page-Rogers' interests purchased 1000 feet of the waterfront and 500 acres (2 km²) of adjoining land. There would be plenty of space for the new pier, storage yards, tracks, and support facilities at Sewell's Point.

The common enemy with deep pockets

In 1905, with the land and route secured, construction got underway on the Tidewater Railway, which as it turned out, went nowhere near its headquarters in Staunton on the C&O. Instead, it started building an alignment which would match up amazingly well with the Deepwater Railway near Glen Lyn, and run almost parallel to the N&W all the way to Norfolk. By the time the larger railroads finally realized what was happening, and that Page was involved in both the Deepwater and Tidewater Railways, their new competitor could not be successfully blocked.

As the construction continued throughout 1905, Col. Page continued to meet with each of the big railroads to attempt to negotiate rates and/or perhaps sell off his fledging enterprise. The leaders of the C&O and the N&W exchanged correspondence sharing their mutual concern about the "common enemy." Page did not appear to be financially capable of the project and they were skeptical that the new Deepwater and Tidewater railroads could be financed and completed. After all, they reasoned, there had been no public offering of bonds or stock, which were the way such enterprises were customarily financed at the time. The big railroads saw to it that the "negotiations" were always unproductive, and Col. Page always declined to indicate the source of his "deep pockets."

Norfolk & Western President Lucius E. Johnson tried a different tactic to block (or at least slow construction and increase costs). He filed papers with the Virginia State Corporation Commission to attempt to force costly overpasses at proposed at-grade crossings with the N&W in Roanoke and South Norfolk, citing great concern about the potential safety hazards which would allegedly result.

The state authorities ruled against N&W at both locations, and it was forced to accept interlocking crossings. The new railroad did accommodate the N&W with grade separations for crossings at Wabun, west of Salem and Kilby, just west of Suffolk. However, there were no delays, as N&W's Johnson had hoped, and construction of the new Tidewater Railway continued at an even faster pace.

Henry Rogers steps forward

The leaders of the big railroads heard many rumors regarding possible sources of the mysterious funding, and Henry Rogers' name had been mentioned, along with just about every other wealthy industrialist, as well as those of many large companies. There was a lot at stake, as the C&O and the N&W through the secret "community of interests pact" were carefully controlling coal shipping rates. Such collusion was the very game that helped Rogers make his fortune at Standard Oil. Rumors notwithstanding, there seems to be no credible evidence that the leaders of the N&W/C&O had any confirmation of the Rogers involvement until he and Page were ready for them to know.

Finally, well into 1906, at the request of Rogers, famous industrialist turned philanthropist Andrew Carnegie brought President L. Smith of the Norfolk & Western Railway to Rogers' office in the Standard Oil Building in New York. According to Norfolk & Western's corporate records, the meeting lasted less than five minutes. Some tense and less-than-pleasant words were exchanged, and Rogers' backing had finally been confirmed. Of course, the head of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad soon also received the news, as did the leaders of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads. There would be an old and experienced hand at rate-making as a new player in their game.

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This aerial shot of Victoria was taken in 1954 looking west. It shows the turntable and roundhouse in the lower left, and the passenger station and Norfolk division offices to the right of the tracks. Photo courtesy Town of Victoria

Victoria is created

Late in 1906, near the halfway point 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 England, who was long-admired by Henry Rogers. Victoria was the midpoint of the Tidewater Railway between Sewell's Point and Roanoke, and was to become was the location of a large equipment maintenance operation, with roundhouse, turntable coaling and water facilities for servicing steam locomotives, and a large yard.

Tidewater changes its name

Only a few months after Victoria was incorporated, in early 1907, the name of the Tidewater Railway was changed to the Virginian Railway The Deepwater Railway was merged into it a month later, and on April 15, 1907, William N. Page became the first president of the Virginian Railway.

The Virginian Railway was completed in 1909, and operated for 50 years before it agreed to be merged into arch-rival N & W in 1959, which in turn, became part of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS) in 1982.

In 2004, much of the former Virginian Railway, including about 60% of the main line trackage of the Tidewater Railway, is still in use.

See Also

References

Books

Periodical, business, and on-line publications

External links

See also: Tidewater Railway, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909, 1959, 1982, Alexander Cassatt, Andrew Carnegie