Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Frederick James Kimball was a civil engineer. He was an early president of the Norfolk and Western Railway and helped develop the Pocahontas coalfields in Virginia and West Virginia. Kimball was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At 18, he went to work for the Erie Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad as a rodman, a menial worker. After a short time, he went to England for two years, where he worked for English railroads.