Prince of the new river

Prince, West Virginia, is among the last places on the C&O system that one would imagine being selected for the construction of a large, state-of-the-art railway station in the immediate post-WWII period.

Prince was an unincorporated town with a population of around 50 people. What made it important was the fact that it was the C&O mainline station that served Beckley, W Va., about 18 miles distant. Consistently, Prince had the largest passenger counts of any station between Clifton Forge, Va., and Charleston, W Va., and continuing good patronage keeps a full-time agent here even in the austere times of Amtrak today. Passengers to and from Beckley used the branch line connecting train or drove by private automobile or taxi to and from the station until the branch passenger train was eliminated in 1950.

Thereafter folks came to and from the trains at Prince only by automobile.

For whatever reason, the C&O selected Prince as it pressed ahead with its plan for numerous new postwar stations. By the time other stations were designed and ready to be built, the great postwar passenger contraction had begun and they were canceled.

Prince's stark Moderne design, its innovative features for the time, and its isolated position deep in the remote and wild New River Gorge, combined with its position as one of the few high-- design railroad stations built after the war anywhere, has given it certain cachet in architectural circles, and interest among modelers and C&O fans. Its styling contrasted with NI Cabin - the old Victorian signal tower located across the track - which stood until recent times.

In this view looking eastward from NI Cabin's window, C&O K-4 No. 2709 contrasts with the streamlined new station at Prince, W. Va., as the Kanawha heads west with train No. 104 in June 1946. This mostly mail and express train is heavy with head-end cars. Finishing touches are all that is needed for the new station. The lamp post and the Art Deco-style "PRINCE" platform signs have yet to be installed. Across the road, the infamous "Beer Joint," as it was called, is being built. The establishment would cause trouble for railroad employees and passengers alike over the years. It was a rough place at times and shotgun blasts were sometimes a common sound on weekend nights. (C&O Ry. photo; C&OHS collection)

Prince is located at milepost 380 on the Chesapeake & Ohio's New River Subdivision, about 23 miles west of the division point of Hinton, W Va., and 11 miles east of the other New River Gorge location which has received much attention: Thurmond.

Prince is the point at which the Piney Creek branch leaves the main line for its 27 miles of line in coal mine territory (plus many smaller branches), including the bustling town of Beckley, 18 miles up the line. Trains on the branch, as well as those on the Laurel Creek branch, were assembled in the small yard at Quinnimont, only a mile to the east.

Prince is born

The origin of the picturesque Fayette County town of Prince turns the calendar back to 1870, a full three years before the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad cut its path and laid rails in 1873. The town's creation can be attributed to Mr. William "Bub" Prince, who was known as resourceful and enterprising man. Bub was operating a general store in the developing town of Beckley at the time and might have owned most of the city had he chosen to stay on top of the mountain. With the fervent news of the C&O's fast approach, Prince hurried down to the point where the waters of Piney Creek join with the ancient New River in the shadow of Batoff mountain, to stake a claim on the main line. Pitching canvas tents and striking kerosene lanterns, Bub and his brother, James Prince Sr., made their first camp just below the location of what would be Stretcher's Neck Tunnel. After several hard scouting trips on foot, the brothers Prince bargained several hundred acres from their cousin, General Alfred Beckley. It would be these lands that would bear the names of Prince and Quinnimont. The Raleigh County courthouse would show these names on the deeds for many years to come.

When Bub Prince moved his family from Beckley in 1873 there were no roads leading in or out of Prince's camp. Facing large trees and heavy brush, Bub was forced to hew his own path down the mountain while guiding the unwieldy ox-drawn sled that bore his wife and child. Navigating over rocks and reversing direction hundreds of times, the crude sled finally delivered its human cargo and provisions to their camp along the New. The town of Prince was born.

After the weary construction crews laid the last steel rail and the mainline railroad was completed, commerce flowed like the water from Piney Creek. A wagon road was hacked out of the side of Batoff mountain and numerous merchants began hauling goods in from surrounding counties through the new town of Prince for shipment on the C&O at Marmet and Kanawha Falls.

Being an ambitious entrepreneur, Bub Prince capitalized on this newfound wave of traffic and established a ferry just below the present site of the Route 41 highway bridge. It was there that Bub ferried the wagons and carts across the New River on their journey to Beckley and other points.