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presents

The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

Norfolk & Western Bluestone Branch

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The railways that emerged in southern West Virginia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were focused not on selfless desires to provide services to communities, nor on long-term goals of carefully planning a sustainable transportation system to last for the ages.

The state was essentially "for sale," and focused on resource extraction for a quick buck. If a railway was built to an inhospitable hollow where few people tread, it was because a tycoon was sure that money would be made hauling what labour stripped from the ground...full stop. Coal mines and lumber camps had Appalachia in their throes, and railway companies played along.

Such a reality informed the development of railways in western Mercer County. Seeking new customers in the newly-opened Pocahontas coalfields, the Norfolk & Western was extended down the Bluestone River to the yet-unnamed town of Bramwell in 1884, to Duhring by 1894, and up Widemouth Creek to Matoaka by 1903. Tertiary branches were built in creekbeds along the way, protruding from the Bluestone Branch like spokes on a wheel. Western Mercer County was covered in a dense web of tracks, offering freight and passenger service between virtually every point on the map. But like many of the camps and communities they served, the railway's presence was contingent upon one thing: Coal being mined and moved. And it was a foregone conclusion that it wouldn't last.

By the 1940s, many of the mines in the Bluestone watershed were "worked out" and began to shutter one by one. As customers vanished, so did the rail service that once connected them. The last freight movement on the line happened in 1984. Since then, the Bluestone Branch has been left mothballed, disused, unmaintained...yet never formally abandoned. The right-of-way remains owned by Norfolk Southern, and portions of the rails still remain in place. Could they someday be the basis for a new through routing for non-coal cargo, or a tourist train? Probably not...but it's a nice thought.

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Points of interest

Bluestone and Coopers

A: The genesis of the Bluestone Branch was originally at Bluestone Junction, West Virginia; a switch station on the namesake river where freight could be shunted either to Pocahontas, Virginia or to points further north. In 1888, the Ohio Extension was completed through the Coaldale Tunnel (discussed on the New River and Pocahontas page), moving the transition point slightly north to the community of Coopers. Fourteen years after that, the N&W completed the Cooper Tunnel...and the branch junction reverted to a point on the map close to the original. Today, the two kilometres of the line closest to Bluestone remain in use by Norfolk Southern simply for purposes of freight storage.

Although Coopers no longer represented the branch junction after 1902, the pre-1902 bridge crossing over the Bluestone River (yellow arrow) was maintained until the 1950s to interface with the north-south mainline and serve a mining operation in Mill Creek.

B: The out-of-service Norfolk & Western line crosses CR 120 (former WV 20) east of Coopers. Though the tracks have been paved over and the crossbucks are gone, the signals hang on...barely. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

A former Norfolk & Western caboose, number unknown, sits on display next to a baseball diamond near the tracks. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

Bramwell, Freeman, and Simmons

C: Bramwell was the first major stop: A town of small stores and lofty mansions erected by monied mine owners. The community was named after postmaster Joseph H. Bramwell and incorporated in 1888, four years after the railway had given it a premise.

Bramwell's railway depot and downtown core laid within a two-block-long meander of the Bluestone River. One kilometre downstream laid Freeman and Simmons. Though Simmons had its own depot and was a distinct railway stop for the operational history of the line, both of these downstream communities were subsumed within Bramwell's town limits by 1909.

Simmons is the point where U.S. Route 52 currently routes a path through the town. A tertiary rail branch also split off at this location, running alongside U.S. 52 northward to serve mining operations in the Simmons Creek valley. The bridge carrying this branch over the Bluestone River was dismantled after 1984.

West Virginia's coal industry peaked in the 1920s...and so did Bramwell, with the town's population reaching a high figure of 1,690 at the start of the decade. Currently, the town's size is one-sixth that number.

A postcard view of Bramwell in its years of growth, taken before 1909. The N&W tracks pass next to a triangle-shaped clearing in the town square; two cars sit in a siding at left, and the depot is to the right. Some of the buildings in the picture still stand today.

Bramwell's Norfolk & Western depot was demolished following the discontinuance of passenger service in 1953, but a realistic replica was built in the late 1990s and presently functions as a visitor centre. The crossing is flanked by vintage crossbucks with cat's eye reflectors, and Western Railroad Supply Company flashing signals bearing a patent year of 1937. (Photos by the author, 2013.)

The branch line crosses the Bluestone River in Bramwell on a simple steel girder bridge. A cast-iron sign from the N&W reminds passerby not to "walk nor trespass" on the deck. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

Duhring and Flipping

D: Duhring and Flipping are representative of the types of small, transitory communities that popped up in tandem with the N&W Railway in the late nineteenth century to provide housing and services to the families of miners employed in the area.

In the railway's earliest configuration, the line turned west at Duhring to proceed up Flipping Creek, serving a number of mining operations in the valley. By 1901 the Bluestone Branch had been extended northeast, and the Flipping Creek track became a tertiary branch. The bridge carrying this branch over the Bluestone River was dismantled after 1984.

Despite N&W's overtures towards electric propulsion between the teens and fifties, the portion of the Bluestone Branch in and beyond Duhring was never electrified.

Flipping Creek Branch: Goodwill

E: The Flipping Creek Branch proceeded approximately 3 kilometres upstream to the community of Goodwill, where the Louisville Coal & Coke Company and Winding Gulf Collieries engaged in the line of pulling black rocks from the ground. The track forked in the centre of the town into two branches proceeding to mine access points, joined by a wye.

Goodwill's coal camps and railway infrastructure were dismantled shortly after mining ceased in 1958. Today the town has essentially reverted to wilderness, although portions of the railway grade are accessible to all-terrain vehicles.

Montcalm

F: The interestingly-named community of Montcalm predates the railway and was originally known as Riverside; the railway came through by 1901, and the current name was assumed by 1909.

A branch split off to serve a number of mining operations in the Crane Creek valley. The bridge carrying the branch over Crane Creek was dismantled after 1984, similar to the fate that befell other tertiary branches along the line.

Though the rail traffic may be gone, Montcalm is one of the few communities in the Bluestone River valley today that still maintains a modicum of life. Much of this is due to its luck-of-the-draw status as the site of a consolidated high school, absorbing students who in earlier decades would have been schooled in Bramwell or McComas.

Crane Creek Branch: Godfrey and Crystal

G: The Crane Creek Branch progressed northwesterly from Montcalm for approximately 9 kilometres, and was probably among the busiest of the N&W's tertiary branch lines.

The first stops this way were in Godfrey and Crystal: A pair of company towns that the Godfrey Coal Company and Crystal Coal & Coke Company founded and named after themselves. Both flamed out quickly when coal production ceased by mid-century, though a handful of residential buildings and ruins remain.

Crane Creek Branch: McComas

H: The primary destination of the Crane Creek branch was McComas, a mining community perched on high terrain not far from the McDowell county line, and also known as Mora in its early years. The railway forked in two with one branch proceeding up a north fork of Crane Creek, and the other branch proceeding west to Mannering through a classification yard.

By some accounts, McComas was the largest coal camp in West Virginia. This is borne out by its appearance in historical maps and aerial images; a radial web punctuated by tipples, conveyors, multi-track railway yards, administrative buildings, and literally hundreds of residential buildings packed in line along the valleys. The American Coal Company was the largest employer in McComas; however, Thomas Coal and Pocahontas Fuel also operated here, making it one of the few coal camps with the pretence of competition for workers.

Due to sheer scale and intertia, mining activity lasted longer in McComas than it did elsewhere in the Bluestone valley, and the rail line remained in use until 1984. Sadly, scale also magnified the human and environmental cost of McComas' industry. McComas' coal companies paid workers in scrip instead of currency, making them beholden to company-owned stores and denying their social mobility. In 1924, unsafe company dumping practices resulted in a portion of the town being inundated by a landslide, killing 10 people. By the 1960s, the landscape was scarred by strip mines. Today an estimated 800 acres west of McComas have been destroyed by an active mountaintop removal site, adding insult to the injury of the town.

Very little remains of McComas today. The former N&W branch forked near this point, and would have passed between the car and the disused McComas Country Store in the background. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

Crane Creek Branch: Mannering

I: The east fork of the Crane Creek Branch ended just west of central McComas at a camp labelled "Mannering" on early maps. Mannering became subsumed into McComas with time, and by the 1920s the name had disappeared from maps.

Rock

J: Rock was typical of the towns in turn-of-the-century Appalachia that punched above their weight, since they functioned as service areas for a vast rural hinterland. The town traces back to the 1850s and was served by a school, a post office, multiple merchandise stores, a power plant...and two railways.

Although the N&W was the first railway to provide Rock with service at the turn of the century, they were soon rivalled by the advent of the Virginian, which approached Rock from the east and completed its mainline in 1909. The two railways progressed in parallel through much of Mercer County, and offered rival services until merging in 1959. The routing of the Bluestone Branch deviates from the Bluestone River at this point, bearing west up Widemouth Creek towards the county line.

Another of the N&W's old "Do Not Walk nor Trespass on the Bridge" signs; this one a little worse for wear. It's unknown if it's still in place today. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

Matoaka

K: Matoaka may have been the most strategically significant of the N&W's stations along the Bluestone Branch, with a classification yard and an interface with the Virginian allowing freight transfer. The town incorporated in 1912 and had the pretence of an economy beyond mining, though all in all it was still beholden to the coal towns and company camps that surrounded it on the map.

This circa-1907 postcard view of Matoaka shows the N&W water tank and depot, nestled in a curve between Widemouth Creek and the railway track. The Virginian line is shown under construction in the foreground.

A Norfolk & Western caboose (originating from the midwestern Wabash Railroad, merged into the N&W in 1964) was displayed on Barger Street in Matoaka for many years. Following the town's disincorporation in 2018, the caboose was auctioned off. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

Giatto, Weyanoke, and Lowe

L: Giatto, Weyanoke, and Lowe were interlinked coal towns that neighboured Matoaka, and are explored more thoroughly on the Virginian page. A wye junction at the confluence of Widemouth Creek was where the Bluestone Branch officially ended, but tertiary branch lines continued west up Lefthand Fork and north up Righthand Fork.

Lefthand Fork Branch: Lamar

M: The N&W's Lefthand Fork Branch progressed in parallel to the Virginian for approximately 6 kilometres to serve the coal company town of Lamar, known as Algonquin until the 1930s. Though the Virginian continued through Clark Gap to points beyond the county line, the Norfolk & Western's freight ventures ended here. Mining ceased in the 1950s, and by 1967 most of the buildings were gone.

Righthand Fork Branch: Smokeless

N: Following the other railway fork north from Giatto, one would have first encountered a stop at Smokeless...a town so obviously tied to the exploits of the coal industry that its name was an adjective for the product! The creek and railway branch both jogged east at this point; line junctions existed for the quaternary Big Branch Spur, and a small spur abandoned by the 1950s that served Smokeless itself.

Big Branch Spur: Piedmont

O: The north reaches of the Big Branch Spur terminated in yet another place that played the name game. Originating as "Sylvia" in the noughts, a name of "Widemouth" was imposed by the Post Office until being succeeded by "Piedmont" by the 1950s. Another, larger West Virginia town named Piedmont existed in the eastern panhandle, so one senses that the renaming caused more confusion than it solved!

Piedmont was controlled by the American Coal Company, which also operated in McComas. By mid-century, underground mining had been succeeded by the decimation of strip mining, and the town's residential section was forced to migrate southward due to its original epicentre being obliterated. Industrial activity continued through the 1960s, then ceased, leaving little trace but a handful of houses.

Righthand Fork Branch: Hiawatha

P: Continuing upstream on the Righthand Fork was Hiawatha. 1920s-era maps show the N&W tracks taking a split alongside opposite banks of the creek. Despite its small size, no fewer than three mining companies were reputed to have operated here at various points: Ennis Coal, Smokeless Coal & Coke, and Weyanoke Coal & Coke.

Hiawatha's vicinity is the northern extent of any intact track on Bluestone Branch tertiary lines. Beyond this point, nothing more than bare grading remains for any trace of the N&W.

Righthand Fork Branch: Springton

Q: Springton was 2 kilometres upstream of Hiawatha, and was a place where the Norfolk & Western took yet another of its insurmountable splits.

The first of these quaternary branches was a lumber railway of unknown provenance, running parallel to today's Springton Mountain Road (CR 10/1). The steep grading of the lumber railway contrasted markedly with the nearly-level grading of the N&W it interfaced with, and it's probable that it utilized unique locomotives and narrow gauge.

Less than 400 metres beyond, a second branch progressed almost due north from Righthand Fork, running parallel to Dott Road (CR 8). The branch crossed Righthand Fork via a small bridge that was removed after 1984.

Meanwhile, the Righthand Fork Branch itself continued in a northwesterly direction to its ultimate terminus on the map.

Dott Spur: Wenonah and Dott

R: Wenonah and Dott were two concurrent names for the same mining camp, located in a hollow at the end of a 2-kilometre rail spur.

Most residential buildings were demolished by the 1970s, and mining ceased at the midpoint of the decade. Today, the only hint that a community ever existed here is the name "Dott Road:" All the buildings and infrastructure that once stood are now gone.

Righthand Fork Branch: Arista

S: No, this Arista had nothing to do with Clive Davis' record label. The town of Arista represents the northernmost extreme of the N&W's Bluestone Branch (excepting the lumber line discussed below), over 18 kilometres' straight line distance from Bluestone where it started!

Predictably, this was yet another coal-dominated company town. The S.J. Patterson Pocahontas Company ran the show in Arista in its earliest years; later succeeded by Weyanoke Coal and other companies. The last industrial activity in Arista was strip mining, continuing into the 1980s. Despite this, virtually all the residential buildings in the town had been razed by the 1970s. Nothing remains today; not even a sign: Much like Wenonah, Arista has veritably been wiped from the map.

Lumber Branch: Beeson

T: The lumber railway branching off from the N&W in Springton is the most obscure and least-understood part of the line. It appears on maps drafted between 1913 and 1926, working its way eastward over ridges and through valleys to a terminus 5 to 14 kilometres away from where it started.

Along the way, it passes through one tangible community on the banks of Rich Creek: Beeson. This probably served as a lumber camp, and maps from the teens show a rail spur and dozens of buildings...but no name. By the mid-1920s, the community had rated itself a name...but it also rated a greatly-reduced footprint, and now served as the termination point for a truncated railway at the tail end of its operational life.

1930s WV SRC road maps (and Google, for that matter) place Beeson on the nearest vehicular road, roughly 900 metres southeast of the historical location. Aerial images show one building still in place on the original premises...and no adjacent trace of the railway.

U: At least one distinct segment of the railway grade was repurposed in the 1930s as a state-maintained highway, CR 5/2.

V, W: Typical for lumber railways, the routing of this branch required locomotives to act like mountain goats, making sharp-radius turns and ascending and descending grades via switchbacks. On Stovall Ridge, the lumber railway divided into two tracks that descended into the Marsh Fork (labelled "Lefthand Fork") and Wolf Creek beds in just this manner. These spurs form the termini of the line. A portion of the Marsh Fork spur now serves as a private road.

The Marsh Fork track comes within 1.6 kilometres of touching the known Camp Creek course of the Raleigh & Pocahontas Lumber Railway, which ran within the same creek bed...however, the two lumber railways operated roughly twenty years apart, making it doubtful that they interfaced.

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