The Deepwater Railway was formed in 1898 as an intrastate short-line railroad located in West Virginia in the United States by William N. Page, a civil engineer and entrepreneur. In 1896, Page had formed a small logging railroad, the Loup Creek & Deepwater (LC&D) which formed the basis for the Deepwater Railway. In 1902, assisted by silent partner, millionaire industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers of Standard Oil fame, Page expanded his plans, first to extend further in West Virginia, and then to the state line with Virginia.

In 1907, the Deepwater Railway was combined with its sister Tidewater Railway to form the Virginian Railway (VGN). In this manner, a late-comer to railroad development, the "Mountains to Sea" VGN, was built right under the noses of two bigger and well-established railroads nearby.

Bituminous coal

Tapping undeveloped wealth: bituminous coal

While heading Gauley Mountain Coal Company in Fayette County, West Virginia, Page made the acquaintance of Rogers. 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 the Chesapeake & Ohio C&O and its major competitor, the Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W). While the two 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. As his plan evolved, he got Rogers and several others to invest in it. A powerful partnership had been formed.

Page and his investors purchased the remote land in the name of Loup Creek Colliery. To access it, in 1898, he acquired a small existing logging railroad, and converted and expanded it to become the Deepwater Railway. It was originally planned to run only a short distance. In 1902, the Deepwater Railway charter was amended to provide for the short-line railroad to connect with the existing lines of the C&O along the Kanawha River at Deepwater and the N&W at Matoaka. After the extension provided by the 1902 amendment, the total distance involved, all within West Virginia, was about 80 miles. By planning interchange points with the two large railroads, Page could anticipate competition and negotiation of fair rates with the only two big railroads nearby.

Big railroads: a secret "community of interests" pact

As Page developed the short-line Deepwater Railway, he ran into an unexpected brick wall when attempting to negotiate with either of the larger railroads who he realized had considered the territory to be potentially theirs for future growth. He had anticipated competitive negotiations, but got nowhere with either of them.

In those days before US anti-trust laws were applied to railroads, it was still the age of the notorious and powerful robber barons of the industrial era. It was only later revealed that the both the C&O and the 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 had apparently agreed with each other to refuse to negotiate with Page (and his upstart Deepwater Railway).

Page didn't give up as must have been anticipated. Instead, he stubbornly continued building his short-line railroad through some of the most rugged terrain of the Mountain State, 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.

The big railroads tried hard to find out if Page was financially capable of competing with them. In what may have been a near-miss with a perjury charge, upon interrogation by N&W attorneys in a West Virginia legal confrontation over right-of-way, Page representing the Deepwater Railway identified the estate of the late Abram S. Hewitt (a former mayor of New York City) as one of his investors. Page never mentioned Henry Rogers, who it is now known had been an associate of Hewitt and may have been acting through the Hewitt estate. The N&W attorneys were unsuccessful in learning more at that time, or during many other confrontations as they attempted to stop the progress of the Deepwater in West Virginia.

Building an outlet to Hampton Roads

In 1904, the owners of the Deepwater Railway chartered another intrastate railroad in Virginia, the Tidewater Railway to link with the Deepwater Railway, and create their own outlet to Hampton Roads for coal being mined along the Deepwater Railway. Under the jurisdiction of their respective states, the plans were not obviously linked to each other. With a great deal of secrecy, the rights-of-way were successfully acquired before the bigger railroads figured out that the two intrastate railroads were to be linked, or that Rogers and his deep pockets was financing the scheme.

With right-of-way secured the entire distance across Virginia, and a site for a new coal pier arranged at Sewell's Point, near Norfolk, Virginia, construction on the Tidewater Railway got underway in 1905. The link to Rogers and both the Deepwater and sister Tidewater Railway was not revealed to the big railroads until well into 1906 when the president of the N&W was invited to Rogers' office in the Standard Oil building in New York City.

Virginian Railway: from the Mountains to the Sea

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.

Two years later, in 1909, the new Virginian Railway was completed. Nicknamed the "Richest Little Railroad in the World", the profitable VGN 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 in 1982.

In 2004, much of the former Virginian Railway, including all of the main line trackage of the Deepwater Railway, is still in use.

See Also

• William N. Page
• Henry H. Rogers
• Tidewater Railway
• Virginian Railway
• Norfolk & Western
• Norfolk Southern

References

Books

• Dixon, Thomas W, Jr., (1994) Appalachian Coal Mines & Railroads. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-883089-08-5
• Huddleston, Eugene L, Ph.D. (2002) Appalachian Conquest, Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-883089-79-4
• 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
• Lewis, Lloyd D. (1992) The Virginian Era. Lynchburg, Virgina: TLC Publishing Inc.
• Lewis, Lloyd D. (1994) Norfolk & Western and Virginian Railways in Color by H. Reid. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-883089-09-3
• Middleton, William D. (1974) (1st ed.). When The Steam Railroads Electrified Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Co. ISBN 0-89024-028-0
• 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. ISBN 1-879314-11-8
• Striplin, E. F. Pat. (1981) The Norfolk & Western : a history Roanoke, Va. : Norfolk and Western Railway Co. ISBN 0963325469
• Traser, Donald R. (1998) Virginia Railway Depots. Old Dominion Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. ISBN 0-9669906-0-9
• 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. ISBN 0-9633254-2-6
• Dept. of the Navy - (2004) Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - article on steamship William N. Page. Washington DC: US Naval Historical Center
• Huddleston, Eugene L, Ph.D. (1992) National Railway Bulletin Vol. 57, Number 4, article: Virginian: Henry Huttleston Rogers' Questionable Achievement
• 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

External links

• Special Collection William Nelson Page Papers, Library of the University of North Carolina (http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/p/Page,William_Nelson.html)
• US Dept. of the Navy, Naval Historical Center (http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/w9/william_n_page.htm)
• Millicent Library, Fairhaven MA, Henry Rogers homepage (http://www.millicentlibrary.org/hhrogers.htm)
• Mark Twain and Henry Huttleston Rogers in Virginia featuring excerpts from their trips together to the 1907 Jamestown Exposition and the 1909 Dedication of the Virginian Railway (http://www.twainquotes.com/TwainRogersVA.html)
• Mark Twain's Correspondence with Henry Huttleston Rogers, 1893-1909 (http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/1166.htm)
• New River CVB Guide to Ansted, WV (http://www.newrivercvb.com/ansted/)
• West Virginia Coal Mines site (http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/begin.html)
• Norfolk & Western Historical Society (http://www.nwhs.org/) covers Virginian history
• Virginia Museum of Transportation  (http://www.vmt.org/) displays 2 of only 3 extant VGN steam and electric locomotives, located in Roanoke, VA
• Virginian Railway (VGN) Enthusiasts (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts/) non-profit group of preservationists, authors, photographers, historians, modelers, and railfans
• listing of Virginian Railway authors and their works (http://www.virginiasampler.com/virginian_railway_authors.htm)
• Mullens West Virginia Caboose Museuma (http://www.virginiasampler.com/virginian-railway-mullens.htm) community project with photos
• Victoria Virginia's new home for Virginian railway Caboose 342 (http://www.club-e-stores.com/Caboose/VGNcaboose_342-3.htm) a community project with photos
• Lynchburg Virginia's project to save the oldest extant Virginian Railway Caboose # 64 (http://www.club-e-stores.com/Caboose/caboose64_lynchburg.htm) a community project with photos
• preserving the Virginian Railway Passenger Station at Roanoke Virginia (http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Roanoke/NR_Roanoke_VirginianRailwayStation_128-5461_text.pdf) a community project with photos requiring pdf file viewer
• Winding Gulf MSN Group (http://groups.msn.com/WindingGulf)A group focused on one of the VGN's most productive coalfields, with information about many coal camps, family histories, maps, photos and links
• Norfolk Southern Corp website (http://www.ns.com/)