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IMPORTANT COAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Waiting until their plans were well matured
and the success of their project assured beyond
chance, J. V. Thompson, the Uniontown banker,
capitalist and coal land owner, and D. F. Maroney,
the well known railroad man and former manager
of the Shawmut Coal & Coke Co., have announced
the formation of the Uniontown & Wheeling Short
Line Railroad Company. It will cover the distance
in 68 miles. As its name implies, the new
railroad is to be the long-desired line from Fayette
county across Greene county, Pennsylvania, to
Wheeling, W. Va., giving not only an outlet for
the mineral riches of Greene county, but an opportunity
for the Wheeling district to obtain easy
access to the Connellsville coke region, obtaining
its furnace and foundry coke without the necessity
for the long haul now required by way of
Pittsburgh. The western and lake markets are
also brought nearer. In the construction and
equipment of the new railroad and in the development
of the coal properties which are owned by
Mr. Thompson and his associates, upward of $10,-
000,000 will be spent during the next two years.
It is expected that by an immediate start on the
construction of the railroad, it can be put into
operation by the spring of 1907, and in the course
of that summer enough openings can have been
made in the coal properties and enough coke ovens
constructed to turn over to the new railroad an
enormous tonnage.
The new road will extend from Uniontown, Fayette
county, to Wheeling and Benwood. It is incorporated
under the laws of Pennsylvania and by
consolidation embraces the charters and rights of
way of four other companies, granted early in
the present year. They are the Leckrone & Little
Whitely Railroad Co., the Midland Railroad Co.,
the Waynesburg & Monongahela Railroad Co. and
the Ohio & Marshall County Railroad Co. The
consolidation was effected a short time ago, the
surveys completed and the final estimates made
so that the purpose of the projectors to begin the
construction work between now and January 1
can be realized.
The construction of the new short line as projected
by Messrs. Thompson and Maroney and
their associates, is but the consummation of a
plan which has been the dream of many who were
familiar with the coal, coke and railroad situation
in Fayette and Greene counties. Their ideas have
many times blossomed out into projects, but opposition
of the strongest kind or lack of capital
has in each case put an end to the plans. Not
until the present time has there been the combination
of sufficient capital and first-rate railroad
ability to give the project definite shape.
In this plan Mr. Thompson, who is president of
the First National Bank of Uniontown, represents
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 37
not only himself, but a number of associates. Mr.
Maroney likewise has as associates in the project
several New York interests of importance. It is
said that when the plan was first proposed to
those not especially familiar with Greene county,
they could not understand the neglect which that
district has encountered in the general industrial
expansion of Western Pennsylvania. It was only
when the interests of the Pennsylvania and Baltimore
& Ohio railroads were pointed out that the
neglect of Greene county could be understood.
The county's enormous mineral riches were at no
time in dispute, and when the complete project was
understood capital for its completion was easily
enlisted.
In the engineering features of the work it is
designed to render the new "Short Line" beyond
criticism. Its maximum grade will be seventenths
of one per cent, and that grade "favors
the load," since it slopes toward the west. To
reduce the grade to this figure it was necessary
to build several tunnels, but this expense was
undertaken rather than sacrifice to false economy
the heavy trainloads which will be possible on
the comparatively low-grade line. The Monongahela
river will be crossed at McCann Ferry on
a bridge 1,300 feet long, with a channel span of
424 feet and a height of this span of over 70 feet
above full pool.
The present eastern terminus of the line will
be at Uniontown, extending thence to Ache Junction,
to Leckrone. in Fayette county, to the Monongahela
river at McCann's Ferry, thence following
Little Whitely creek, Muddy creek and the south
fork of Ten-Mile creek to Waynesburg, the county
seat of Greene count}': thence to Rogersville and
Rutan, crossing the divide or summit to the headwaters
of the north fork of Wheeling creek, following
this stream through Durbin and Crows Mills,
Greene county, at the Pennsylvania and West Virginia
state line, thence along Big Wheeling creek
through Viola, Marshall county, W. Va., and Elm
Grove, Ohio county. W. Va., into Wheeling and
Benwood.
The line will have connections with Pennsylvania
railroad and the Baltimore & Ohio, the Masontown
& New Salem, owned and operated by
the United States Steel Corporation, the Monongahela
railroad and the Wheeling Terminal, which
allows of an exchange of traffic with the Pennsylvania
lines west, the Baltimore & Ohio east and
west, the Ohio River railroad and the Wabash line.
The projected road reduces the distance from
the Connellsville field to Wheeling more than 50
miles, the Uniontown and Wheeling being but 68
miles. As compared with the Baltimore & Ohio
there is a saving of 72 miles and the Pennsylvania
railroad and Panhandle 67 miles. The road also
reduces the distances from the coke regions to