Nothing so transforms a new country as a railroad. Country roads, turnpikes, highways, & even canals, have but little weight in shaping the character of a country compared with the power & influence of the steam railway. The West Virginia Central & Pittsburg Railway penetrated a country which was unsettled, underdeveloped, & practically untrod. The book provides the reader with geographic locations, branches, connections, investments, climate, water courses, coal freight, resources overlooked, etc. It also describes businesses that were directly affected by it. Third Printing, 1992.
This book documents the construction of railroads in West Virginia, largely to access the untouched stands of timber in such counties as Upshur, Webster, Nicholas, and Randolph. Johnson Newlon Camden and Henry Gassaway Davis were the two men that were the driving forces behind these railroads. They were industrialists and politicians as well as friends and rivals. Camden built the Clarksburg, Weston and Glenville Railroad connecting Clarksburg and Weston in north central West Virginia. Completed in 1879, it was extended to Buckhannon in the fall of 1883. The West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad soon built extensions from Weston to the Gauley River and south from Buckhannon. Davis started construction of the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway in 1880, which followed the North Branch of the Potomac River south into Tucker and Randolph Counties. Sawmills and towns sprang up all along the railroads as vast quantities of lumber were harvested from the forests of West Virginia. As the forests were denuded, mines opened, more towns were built, and coal replaced lumber as the principal freight. While sections of the W. Va. & Pittsburgh have been abandoned, the present day successor to the B. & O. still hauls coal along these rail lines to the voracious power plants of the eastern United States. Author and railroad scholar Alan Clarke has once again offered an in-depth look at the building of railroads in West Virginia in the late nineteenth century. Much of the technical and historical information in the book will be of special interest to railroad buffs. However, Clarke's grasp of the state at that time in history, as well as the book's vintage photographs, maps, and illustrations, cause this book to appeal to anyone interested in the history of the Mountain State.
Beginning as a narrow gauge line in 1880, its name and gauge changed in 1881 and in the ensuing years it opened a huge swathe of timber and coal territory in northern West Virginia to use, creating such towns as Elkins, Davis, and Thomas. A major connection was made with the C&O's Greenbrier Branch at Durbin, W. Va. in 1900. Sold to the Gould interests in 1902 it became an important part of the Western Maryland Railway in 1905 and contributed heavily to that road's prosperity in the coal and lumber trade down to modern times. This book is illustrated with superb photos, written in a cogent and informative style based on outstanding scholarly research in basic documents. The story is carried down through the WM and Chessie System eras to today's CSX operations on the remaining lines. A must for those interested in West Virginia, mountain railroading, and coal and lumber development. This is the second volume by this author. His West Virginia's Coal & Coke Railway - A B&O Predecessor, published by TLC last year, has been a best seller and has gathered great reviews for its completeness, accuracy, insight, and appearance. This new work is comparable!
