Now tht NS has released its Virginian heritage unit, I was wondering if the Virginian had bougth the N&W instead of th other way around would there have been any difference in the composition (purchased rairoads e.g. buy Southern Railroad) and operation of the Virginian?. According to a friend of mine who grew up near the Virginian, they were rich enough to buy the N&W if they wanted too.
I believe that the Virginian was indirectly owned by a utility (Eastern Gas & Fuel Associates) and was more of a one-commodity operation than Norfolk & Western. VGN was quite comfortable in its niche and probably wasn't looking to move away from a profitable dependency on Tidewater coal traffic.
I am not sure about the ownership, but they wre a one product railroad which was coal. They once were called the richest little railroad in the United States. Between the mines that they served, N&W and C&O had mines that they served which requred the use of Virginian tackage. According to my friend the Virginian collected a lot of money from the other two railroad to use their tracks. But my point is and I know thtat N&W and the Virginian had a lot of duplicate trackage, espeicially from Deepwater to Norfolk,. Why sell out when
1. You can compete sucessfully with the "Big Boys" (N&W and C&O).
2. You have enough money to buy the N&W and sell off what you do not want (e.g. Keep the duplicate route to Norfolk and do what N&W does, use each track in one direction, N&W track for empties west bound and Virginian trackage with loads east bound).
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