(The Associated Press distributed the following article on August 16.)
MOUNT HOPE, W.Va. — For years, a stretch of rail track between Mount Hope and Thurmond was silent, serving only as a shortcut to local fishing holes or as bleachers for parents watching their children play at nearby soccer fields.
That changed a year ago, when Roger Lipscomb and Jon Dragan launched West Virginia Southern Railroad, a short-line freight company. Lipscomb and Dragan operate the railroad on 12 miles of track for which they had purchased the right of way from CSX in 2002.
West Virginia Southern Railroad now rumbles back and forth between the two Fayette County communities at least five days a week, hauling wood, chemicals and other products for local industries, including Georgia Pacific and Austin Powder.
“In the past, CSX could only service these customers every few days or every other day. We can carry out their products every day,” Lipscomb said.
West Virginia Southern Railroad has one engine and six employees and is in the black after its first year of operation. Lipscomb and Dragan hope to someday expand the railroad to Pax, where it could link up with tracks owned by Northern Southern. But that cannot happen until an 1,800-foot-long tunnel between Mount Hope and Pax is rehabilitated.
“Not too many short-line railroads do that, offer service to two major railroads,” Lipscomb said. “From a freight railroad standpoint, we have a unique advantage.”
“We have 95 acres outside of Pax that would be an ideal industrial site,” he said. “We would have service from both CSX and Norfolk Southern, which would help our customers because the two railroads would have to compete against each other.”
Dragan, who founded West Virginia’s first commercial whitewater outfitter in 1968 in the New River Gorge, and Lipscomb began discussing operating a railroad in 1988. At first, they considered operating a scenic railroad in the gorge for tourists, but they decided that a short-line freight hauler would be more successful.
“The freight railroad was not supposed to be the main focus, but in all honesty, without the freight, we’d not be able to do this,” Lipscomb said.
He said the company may do double duty as both a freight and tourist railroad in the future but there are no immediate plans to do so.
Mount Hope Mayor Michael Martin said he would love for his town to host a tourist train.
“We have a beautiful downtown with lots of historic buildings. We are just getting set for the day when Mr. Dragan or Mr. Lipscomb comes looking for three or so acres to stage a tourist train from.”