Development of the southern West Virginia coalfields depended on transportation, especially the railroad. In 1881, Thomas Graham and Philadelphia investors bought the unsuccessful Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad, running between Norfolk and Bristol, Virginia, and with support from F. W. Clark & Company reorganized it as the Norfolk & Western Railway, with F. J. Kimball as director and later president. Graham and Clark also organized the Flat Top Land Association, which bought large tracts of coal-rich land, leaving railroad expansion as the key to large-scale coal development. F. W. Kimball drove the Norfolk & Western into the region; it reached Pocahontas, Virginia, in 1882 and shipped the first car of coal from the Pocahontas mine in March 1883. The line continued west to Higginbotham Summit, later Bluefield, where the company built a terminal, division office, repair shops, a roundhouse, and other facilities, then built extensions into the coalfield and eventually west to Ironton, Ohio, connecting with other carriers for access to midwestern markets. Through Flat Top Land Association land leases to coal operators and through the distribution of coal cars, the railroad exercised considerable control in the coalfields, and it ultimately played the defining role in development of the Pocahontas coalfield in southern West Virginia. Frederick James Kimball, born in 1844 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, trained as a civil engineer, began work for the Pennsylvania Railroad at age 18, spent two years in England studying its rail system, later worked on the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, became a partner in E. W. Clark & Company, and in 1881 became president of the Norfolk & Western Railway. His knowledge of the geology of Flat Top Mountain led him to build a branch line along Mill Creek, opening the Pocahontas coalfield and extending the railway into the area. During his presidency, the Norfolk & Western expanded west to Columbus, Ohio, and into North Carolina, and acquired the Flat Top Coal Land Association, renaming it the Pocahontas Coal & Coke Corporation, later the Pocahontas Land Corporation. He was a major contributor to development of the Pocahontas field, the extension of routes, and the future of the railway, and the town of Kimball was named for him. Bramwell benefited from excellent rail service, with as many as 16 daily train stops at one time, and because it was a service center and residential community for many coal operators rather than a coal town, it avoided mining-town features such as coke ovens.