
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 3, 1991                   TAG: 9103030087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: POCAHONTAS                                LENGTH: Short

TWO TOWNS PUSH BOOST FOR TOURISM/ COMMUNITIES SEEK HISTORIC TRAIN

Two towns, separated by a state line and a few miles of railroad tracks, are trying to develop a tourist train and show what it was like in the time of coal barons and saloons, picks and shovels and the company store.

"I think tourism will be what saves this town," said Jeannie Soos of Pocahontas. "And the only way tourism can work in Southwest Virginia is to consolidate these coal towns and build around that. The state line can't be an obstacle."

Reginald Sexton of Bramwell, the Mercer County community across the border in West Virginia, said the economy of the area is depressed because coal is being mined mechanically.

"We're producing more coal now than we ever did, but it's not labor intensive," Sexton said.

At one time, Pocahontas had 23 saloons and about as many churches vying for miners' attention. Now, with a population of 400, the town is looking for help in the form of the Tourist Train, an idea generated in West Virginia.

"The Tourist Train will be the way to pull all this together, Sexton said.

The train's headquarters would be in Bramwell. As now envisioned, the train would include several passenger cars pulled by a vintage steam locomotive. Running on unused Norfolk Southern Corp. rail lines, the train would take visitors back to the booming coal days.

The train would show off the famous Pocahontas Exhibition Mine, first opened in 1882, and the wide range of architecture in Pocahontas.

Norfolk Southern is evaluating the Tourist Train proposal and no decision has been made, company spokesman Bob Auman has said.

by CNB