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presents

The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

Norfolk & Western New River and Pocahontas Divisions

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When the Norfolk & Western Railway formed in 1881, its name was new...but its bones were not. Its direct predecessor was the fanciful Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio Railroad...which terminated in Bristol, Tennessee and didn't come close to achieving its title. The AM&O was itself a successor to a patchwork of earlier Virginia railways, the oldest of which dated to 1838. Some of its infrastructure had seen four decades of use, multiple mergers...and one Civil War.

At the same time the ink was drying on the deeds of the N&W, a bit of opportunistic mayhem was starting to unfold on the West Virginia-Virginia border. The Pocahontas coalfields had recently been discovered, and numerous proposals were being thrown at the wall by investors seeking to build rail links to the mines. Acting quickly, the N&W financed the acquisition of several fledgling rail companies (among them the New River Railroad, East River Railroad, and Bluestone Railroad) and used these as the basis for a New River division, carrying its herald west into places where no trains had been before.

The Norfolk & Western New River branch was the very first rail line to be built in Mercer County. Construction to its original terminus of Pocahontas was finished in 1883, with regular freight shipments beginning in May of that year.

Although the railway's initial impetus was to service industry, this quality was soon eclipsed by a more significant social role: Facilitating population growth. With the hitherto-isolated area now easily accessible by train, Mercer County grew dramatically. Its population more than doubled from 1880 to 1890; a rate of growth not seen before or since. The advent of the railway also facilitated the advent of a new city, Bluefield, that for several decades would see meteoric growth of its own.

140-plus years after the rails were first laid, the line remains in service, and much of its course has changed little. The N&W enters West Virginia just aft of Glen Lyn. From there, it takes a fairly level and southeasterly course through the East River Valley towards Bluefield, where the line broadens from two tracks to eighteen(!) and passes the N&W's locomotive shops and classification yard. The railway re-enters Virginia and splits just across the state line, with the mainline taking a northwesterly fork straddling the Bluestone River Valley. Passing into West Virginia once more, the line follows Mill Creek...then disappears through the Elkhorn Tunnel on the way to McDowell County and points further beyond.

In its earliest years, the line from Glen Lyn to Pocahontas was operated as part of Norfolk & Western's New River Division. After being extended north of its original terminus, the line became part of the new Pocahontas Division...and also became part of the railway's primary east-west mainline from Norfolk, Virginia to Columbus, Ohio. Until acquisitions in the 1960s broadened the N&W's geographic reach, this essentially was the railway! Passenger service continued in fits and starts until 1979, when Amtrak cuts left Bluefield high and dry to anyone without a car. Today the line is operated by Norfolk Southern Corporation, which succeeded the N&W in 1982.

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Points of interest

Glen Lyn, Virginia

A: The Norfolk & Western system entered West Virginia at Glen Lyn, a small town abutting the state line at the New River. Glen Lyn also served as the entry point for the rival Virginian Railway when it was constructed in 1909, with the N&W hugging the southeast shore of the New and East Rivers and the Virginian soaring from bridges and elevated passes above. In 1919 a coal-fired power plant was commissioned in the town, and its location enabled it to be served by both railways.

Willowton

B: After crossing the state boundary, the very first railway station one would encounter was Willowton, also marked as "Wills Station" on early maps. Although it never had much of an industrial role, this community survives today as a cluster of houses surrounding the track.

A rare view of the N&W line in Willowton, from a photo postcard postmarked 1906. The image was taken facing east towards Glen Lyn, and some of the distant hills are in Virginia.

Oakvale

C: Oakvale was founded as Frenchville, and reportedly predated the railway by an order of magnitude. This long, linear town was also grazed by the Virginian mainline, and survives as the smallest incorporated place in Mercer County. Its high school was located outside the town limits, and survived until 1994.

A Norfolk & Western caboose (originating from the Nickel Plate Road, merged into the N&W in 1964) stands on display in Oakvale within sight of the active track. The trestle in the background towers over them both, and originated with the Virginian Railway. (Photo by the author, 2000.)

Hardy

D: The next map-point was a community of modest stature, referred to variously as East River, Hardy, and McKenzie in different sources. "McKenzie" was preferred by the N&W, but the "Hardy" name seems to have won out in the end.

E: The Norfolk & Western line crosses the East River and WV 112 west of Hardy. (Photo by the author, 2000.)

Ingleside

F: Ingleside made more of an impact. First appearing on maps by 1887, this community represented the point at which the East River received inflow from Twelvemile Creek...and the point at which the courses of the N&W and Virginian railways diverged. Throughout the twentieth century, Ingleside formed a reference point for the surrounding vehicular roads. Today, it's a scene of quarrying activity.

Blake

G: Blake was perhaps the most ineffectual of the N&W's Mercer County stops, never consisting of more than two buildings and a grade crossing. By the 1960s it had vanished from the map; its only residual trace being the name of the hollow it was in.

Ada

H: Long Fall may have actually been the East River Valley's most prosperous community in the 1880s, exceeding Frenchville (Oakvale) in footprint and staking a presence on the N&W before Bluefield even existed on the map. The community assumed the shorter name of Ada by 1895. The place remained significant through at least the 1920s, boasting a school, a post office, a modicum of industrial activity and a railyard four tracks abreast...but its time in the spotlight would soon run out.

Ada barely exists today, though it remains on maps. Its main traces on the ground are the Ada Road (CR 38/1), and a small cluster of houses astride the track.

Ada, as seen from a highway overlook in a postcard of the 1930s or 1940s. One of the buildings visible is a depot, now long-gone.

Bluefield

Of all the communities in West Virginia tied to railroads, few are more significant than Bluefield. The city abuts the southwest corner of Mercer County, perched astride the East and Bluestone River watersheds. This location proved to be ideal for railway facilities: Bluefield had the highest elevation of any point on the N&W mainline, and trains could be switched with gravity assistance in either direction.

The city's pattern and rate of development was so rapid that it must have been bewildering to witness in real time. As late as 1887, Bluefield was missing from maps. The N&W opened shop facilities in 1888. Incorporation followed in 1889. Bluefield Colored Institute was founded in 1895. The population blossomed and burgeoned...experiencing nearly sixfold growth from 1890 to 1910. Growth would slow in the teens, and morph into outright decline by the 1950s due to late capitalism and the inability to unhitch the fortunes of the city from the coal industry that surrounded it. In the meantime, however, Bluefield enjoyed several decades as one of the premiere economic and cultural centres of Appalachia.

I: The Grant Street Bridge was built in 1941 (replacing a similar bridge from the turn of the century), and crossed the N&W classification yard at the city's East End. Despite being open to vehicle and pedestrian traffic, it was very much a "railway bridge" in that Norfolk & Western co-owned the structure and funded its construction. The bridge is now gone, having succumbed to demolition and replacement between 2021 and 2023. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

J: Norfolk & Western's divisional headquarters occupy a 5-storey building at the corner of Princeton Avenue and Scott Street, designed by Alex Mahood in 1948. It remains in use by Norfolk Southern today. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

Bluefield's tallest railway landmark is the massive concrete coaling tower that loaded locomotives with fuel in the age of steam. Despite being obsolesced in the 1960s, it still stands. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

Bluefield's ornate passenger rail depot sat at the kitty corner of the N&W divisional headquarters, and was demolished even before the end of passenger rail service in 1979. (Photo postcard, circa late 1950s.)

Despite the loss, some other structures survive on the site...including a small building that may have been a luggage or freight depot. The second image reveals the level of demolition that has stricken the city since the early 2000s, with entire blocks now gone. (Photos by the author, 2013.)

Turning back the clock several decades would have revealed a city that was familiar in places, yet dramatically different. The Norfolk & Western maintained a massive circular roundhouse on its premises, south of where Hardy Street is today. (Bluefield photo postcard, date unknown)

A wide view, facing east from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge. The curvature of the left edge of the yard is the only trace left of the N&W's historical roundhouse, which was demolished in the 1960s. The view is similar today, although the colour-position signals and Grant Street truss are now gone. (Photo by the author, 2000.)

K: This segment of the N&W yard is overlooked by Bluefield State College, and is 8 tracks abreast. (Photo by the author, 2000.)

L: Elsewhere in Bluefield, a Norfolk & Western historical display features a genuine 1897-vintage Baldwin steam locomotive, coal car, and yet another caboose. It sits by the state line in Bluefield City Park, which is nowhere near any present or historical rail line...so how it got here is anyone's guess. (Photo by the author, 2013.)

In 1915, the N&W took a step beyond steam by introducing electric propulsion between Bluefield and Vivian, a community in McDowell County. The locomotives were powered by overhead wires, and were better able to endure steep grades at capacity than steam. The N&W's electrification also predated that of the Virginian, although it was never as extensive.

The exact location of this scene is unknown, but it was likely towards the west end of Bluefield. Also note that one of the gantries doubled as a signal bridge. (Photo postcard, date unknown.)

Yards

M: Yards (also known as Flattop Yards) was a semblance of a community wrapped around a seven-track classification yard straddling the Virginia-West Virginia border. The necessity for a railway facility in this location was likely lessened by subsequent improvements to the N&W's Bluefield facilities; however, Yards' yards (see what I did there?) have been retained for freight storage to this day.

Nemours

N: Nemours was the location of a Du Pont gunpowder factory, operating from 1904 to 1950. Early maps label the community as "Abbs Valley," taking the name from the hollow that surrounds it. Smith Store, a community 16 kilometres away in Virginia, would later also assume the "Abbs Valley" name.

Bluestone and beyond

O: Originally, the N&W bore west at the confluence of the Laurel Fork and Bluestone River to terminate at Pocahontas, Virginia. One year on, however, the line was extended...necessitating a new railway stop called Bluestone Junction. The "Junction" part of Bluestone's name was forgotten as the decades wore on, and development began to skew the community southeastward from its original epicentre.

In 1915, Bluestone became the site of a power plant (purple arrow) built to handle the electrification of the line. But this was simply one of many changes that affected this area over time.

P: Between 1888 and 1893, Norfolk & Western completed its ambitious Ohio Extension...a feat linking Norfolk to Ironton through very challenging terrain. One of the very first pieces of this puzzle to be completed was a single-track subterranean bore variously known as the Coaldale Tunnel, Old Elkhorn Tunnel, Flat Top Tunnel, East End Tunnel, or Tunnel 377. It was approximately 1.3 kilometres long, and carried the N&W north of Bluestone Junction to ever-farther termini.

In 1902, the Cooper Tunnel was constructed in the community of Coopers west of Bramwell. This short, 230-metre tunnel was built to eliminate sharp turns from the mainline, and also resulted in a portion of former mainline track being reassigned to the Bluestone Branch. North of the portal, the grade was raised and a new bridge was built to carry the realigned mainline over the Bluestone Branch and Bluestone River.

As the Coaldale Tunnel was a bottleneck straddled by steep grades, the N&W investigated its elimination or replacement in the years following World War II. Quickly, proposals were put into motion...and in 1947, construction began on a new two-track Elkhorn Tunnel slightly west of the old one. By June 1950, the tunnel was done. The older Coaldale Tunnel was abandoned; its portals obliterated, and the surrounding land strip-mined. The communities of Ruth and Coaldale, clustered around the south and north portals, were wiped from the map.

There was another, more unexpected victim of the tunnel: Electrification. The new Elkhorn Tunnel's approach was less straining on steam locomotives and the emerging diesels than the old tunnel had been...so, exploiting short-term thinking, N&W management scrapped its electric locomotives and cut the wires down.

At 2.2 kilometres in length, the Elkhorn Tunnel is both the longest tunnel in Mercer County and an impressive feat of mid 20th-century engineering. But it's a pity that so much was lost to accommodate it.

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