Virginian Railway Glen Rogers Branch

The Glen Rogers Branch of the Virginian Railway, now inactive, spans 15 miles from the former mainline at Pierpont to Glen Rogers, West Virginia.

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The Glen Rogers Branch of the Virginian Railway, now inactive, spans 15 miles from the former mainline at Pierpont to Glen Rogers, West Virginia. Constructed by the Virginian Railway between 1922 and 1923, this 14.8-mile branch was established to access the extensive underground coal mines managed by the Raleigh-Wyoming Mining Company located in Glen Rogers and Glen Morrison. The branch, a single-track line, featured significant engineering works, including a 2,463-foot tunnel at Polk Gap, a 242-foot tunnel at Milam, a 302-foot viaduct over Road Branch, a 515-foot trestle over Mire Branch, a 302-foot bridge over Low Gap Branch, and a 167-foot crossing over Milam Fork. ¹

Following the closure of the Glen Rogers mines in 1960, the branch saw limited use until the early 1970s. Interest in the line was revived with the opening of Ranger Fuel Corporation’s Beckley No. 1 mine at Bolt in November 1973, ⁴ and its Beckley No. 2 mine at Sabine in October 1975. ² Both mines, projected to operate for 25 to 30 years, ^{3 4} extended the line’s utility until they were depleted by the mid-1990s. Subsequently, Norfolk Southern, the Virginian Railway’s successor, ceased operations on the Glen Rogers Branch. The last service run on this line occurred on September 6, 1996. ⁵

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Sources

1. VGN Track Charts c. 1967, Multimodal Railways.
2. “Machine Cuts Into Seam.” Beckley Post-Herald, 6 Oct. 1977, p. 11.
3. Maurice, Johanna. “Massive New Mine Opens in Wyoming.” Beckley Post-Herald, 5 Oct. 1977, pp. 1-2.
4. “Coal Mining Positions Available.” Beckley Post-Herald, 21 Oct. 1973, p. 34.
5. Conversation with Ron Stafford.