Building The Virginian Railway
The Virginian Railway (VGN) was conceived early in the 20th century by two men. One was a brilliant 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 story of the building of the Virginian Railway has been described as a textbook example of natural resources and railroads, and of a smaller company taking on big business (and winning) early in the 20th century. It was a time when many railroads were under the common control of a few powerful developers, who took on competitors without antitrust restraints.
The Virginian was considered a folly at the time of construction, as so much capital was spent on making the railroad as flat and straight as possible, "As though the Virginia hills did not exist". In the long run this proved to be a very profitable route as operating costs were low due to the relative lack of grades and little curvature of track.
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