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Virginian Railway
VGN corporate logo
Reporting marks VGN
Locale Deepwater, West Virginia - Norfolk, VA
Years of operation 19071959
Track gauge 4' 8.5"
Headquarters Norfolk, Virginia

The Virginian Railway (VGN) was a Class 1 railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States.

The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads. Founders William N. Page and Henry H. Rogers quietly built the "Mountains to Sea" railroad right under the noses of the big railroads and the robber barons who controlled them.

Completed in 1909, it was a modern well-engineered railroad with all new infrastructure and could operate more efficiently than its larger competitors. Throughout a profitable 50-year history, the VGN continued a Page-Rogers philosophy of "paying up front for the best" It sought (and achieved) best efficiencies in the mountains, rolling piedmont, and flat tidewater terrain. Well-known for operating the largest and best steam, electric, and diesel motive power, it became nicknamed "Richest Little Railroad in the World."

Merged into Norfolk & Western Railway in 1959, a large portion of the former VGN remains in service in the 21st century for Norfolk Southern Corp.

The story was first told by H. Reid in "The Virginian Railway" published in 1961. Although one of the smaller fallen flags of U.S. railroads, over 40 years later the VGN continues to have a loyal following of former employees, modelers, authors, photographers, historians, and preservationists.

1 Building the Virginian Railway

The Virginian Railway (VGN) was built early in the 20th century by two men. One was a brilliant civil engineer and entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a business innovator who establishes a new business entity to offer a new or existing product or service into a new or existing market for profitable motivations. Entrepreneurs often have strong beliefs about a market opportunity and ar, William Nelson Page. His partner was millionaireA millionaire is a person who has a net worth or wealth of more than one million United States dollars, euros, UK pounds or units of a similarly valued currency. In many countries or cultures, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a million industrialistIndustrialist mainly refers to a person who takes a leading or visionary role in the process of building up an industry over a long time. Often an industrialist invests his own capital and thus has some degree of capitalist ownership control. Still the in, Henry Huttleston Rogers.

Together, they conceived and built a well-engineered railroad that was virtually a "conveyor belt on rails" to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coalBituminous coal is a soft coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen''. It is of better quality than lignite coal but of poorer quality than anthracite coal. When used for many industrial processes, bituminous coal must first be "coked" to remove from southern West Virginia to port on Hampton Roads, near Norfolk, Virginia.

The story of the building of the Virginian Railway is a textbook example of natural resources, railroads, and a smaller company taking on big business (and winning) early in the 20th century.

It was a time when notorious and powerful robber barons of the industrial era ruled and big railroads represented great power. Neither the automobile nor federal laws were of any major concern to them.




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