Shipping By Rail

From the eighteen eighties through the nineteen twenties, Davis industries such as the sawmill produced a wide range of forest products and depended on the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railroad, later the Western Maryland, to reach distant markets and make those businesses viable there. Trains carried hardwood lumber for fine woodworking, softwood for construction, large timbers for frame buildings and mine supports, pulpwood for paper mills, leather for shoes, clothing, industrial belts, and tack, and chemicals extracted from timber. Each industry had facilities designed to load railroad cars efficiently, and the railroad provided different freight cars for different cargoes. At the sawmill, the river supplied boiler water and log storage while the railroad moved products to market; a long wooden dock and rail access to specific buildings supported shipments of finished lumber and pulpwood, as well as deliveries of coal, tools, and supplies. Narrow-gauge rails on the loading platform helped workers move lumber stacks into place, and loads traveled either on open-topped freight cars or in boxcars depending on the protection required. Workers loading gondolas and flatcars tied and braced cargoes so they would not shift in transit, and loaded trains left Davis daily carrying diverse products outward while mail, merchandise, and passengers arrived and departed at the town's combined passenger and freight station.

Davis, West Virginia · United States