Virginia & Southwestern Railway Co history

The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway traces its origin to the Louisa Railroad of Louisa County, Virginia, begun in 1836, and the James River & Kanawha Canal Company begun 1785, also in Virginia.

The first train ran on December 20, 1837.

At first, the line was operated by the RF&P. By December of 1838 the tracks had been extended to Louisa Courthouse and twice daily passengers and freight were picked up by stage coach and wagon to continue westward.

The railroad reached Gordonsville on January 1, 1840.

Perhaps Conrail's best-known predecessor was the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), incorporated in 1846.

Construction of the railroad started southward in 1850 at a point along the Potomac River waterfront.

Tudor Hall, later renamed Manassas Junction (located in the area of today's Fairview Avenue road crossing east of the Manassas Amtrak passenger station), was reached in October 1851.

Also in 1852, the Virginia Central joined tracks with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in Gordonsville.

The Virginia Central was given rights to the use of this railroad, and the first train entered the Valley of Virginia on April 1, 1854.

Charleston and Memphis, Tennessee, were linked by 1857, although rail expansion halted with the start of the Civil War.

Using trackage rights on the Virginia Central to reach from Gordonsville to Charlottesville, the O&A built southward from Charlottesville to reach Lynchburg by 1860.

In May of 1863, Louisa Courthouse was raided and Hanover depot burned.

The first, the North Anna Campaign, occurred in May of 1864 and is covered in the West Point Atlas.

Despite the damage done during the war trains were running over the whole line by July of 1865, just 3 months after the Confederate surrender.

On July 1, 1867 the C&O was completed nine miles from Jackson’s River Station to the town of Covington, seat of Alleghany County, Virginia.

In 1868 the Virginia Central merged with the Covington and Ohio to form the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.

By 1869, it had crossed Alleghany Mountain, using much of the tunneling and roadway work done by the Covington & Ohio before the war, and was running to the great mineral springs resort at White Sulphur Springs, now in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.

In the process the PRR severed the B&O's connection to the O&A and the south as the PRR also gained control of the line on the Virginia side of the river from the bridge to Alexandria in 1872.

Also in 1876, the Charlottesville & Rapidan RR was incorporated to construct a direct line between Orange and Charlottesville.

In 1878 the company reorganized to become the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

1880 The properties of the James River and Kanawha Company, a canal enterprise, were acquired by the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad, and the canal towpath was used to build a railroad from Richmond to Clifton Forge, Va.

In 1881, E.W. Clark and Co., a private banking firm in Philadelphia, purchased the AM&O and renamed it Norfolk and Western Railroad.

Many investors realized the potential profit in Virginia's railroads, especially after the opening of the first coal mine in Tazewell County in 1882.

Norfolk Southern traces its roots as a coal carrier and developer of natural resources to 1883, when Norfolk and Western Railway carried the second shipment of coal from the Pocahontas coalfields to the mayor of Norfolk, Virginia.

In 1888 the C&O built the Cincinnati Division from Huntington down the South bank of the Ohio River and across the river at Cincinnati, connecting with the “Big Four” and other Midwestern Railroads.

After the James River line opened in the 1890’s, traffic through Charlottesville was primarily passengers and agricultural products.

Operations began the following July with over two thousand miles of lines including the former Richmond & Danville (R&D) lines in Virginia and several other southeastern railroads that had failed due to a depression in 1893 when over 27,000 miles of railroad lines went into receivership.

By the end of 1894 the Southern had grown to over 4300 miles in length as other lines emerged from receivership and joined the Southern.

The first automobile appeared on Virginia's streets in Norfolk in 1899.

In 1901, Norfolk and Western Railway Company acquired control of the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company and with it, approximately 300,000 acres of coal-bearing land.

In about 1909 automatic train controls were installed between Gordonsville and Clifton Forge as an experiment in improving traffic.

The importance of PRR's passenger business continued to grow when the railroad opened Pennsylvania Station in 1910 to facilitate efficient rail transportation from the island of Manhattan to outlying points.

The line was purchased by the C&O in 1912.

By the time the line from Meridian, Mississippi, to New Orleans was acquired in 1916 under Southern's president Fairfax Harrison, the railroad had attained the 8,000-mile, 13-state system that marked its territorial limits for almost half a century.

View fullscreenRoad Building (VHS call number: Mss1 W7764 a)More informationRoad construction would become an important political issue in Virginia in the 1920s.

Because of his leadership, a 1922 state referendum on highway bonds was defeated by a large margin.

As early as the 1930’s stations like Hewlett and Atlee lost their telegraph offices or agency stations.

Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company changed its name in 1939 to the current name of Pocahontas Land Corporation.

The last Richmond streetcar made its final run in 1949, sixty-one years after the first electric streetcar appeared on its streets.

In 1953, Southern Railway became the first major railroad in the United States to convert totally to diesel-powered locomotives, ending its rich history in the golden age of steam.

Young eventually gave up his C&O position to become Chairman of the New York Central before his untimely death in 1958.

Virginia's first superhighway was the Emporia bypass, a portion of Interstate 95 that opened to traffic on September 8, 1959.

C&O continued to be one of the most profitable and financially sound railways in America, and in 1963 started the modern merger era by “affiliating” with the ancient modern of railroads, the hoary Baltimore & Ohio.

In 1964, the former Wabash; Nickel Plate; Pittsburgh & West Virginia; and Akron, Canton & Youngstown railways were brought into the system in one of the most complex mergers of the era.

In 1968, PRR tried to halt its deterioration by merging with rival New York Central to form Penn Central.

By 1970, only Richmond, Gordonsville, and Charlottesville remained on the public passenger time tables.

Avoiding a mistake that would become endemic to later mergers among other lines, a gradual amalgamation of the two lines’ services, personnel, motive power and rolling stock, and facilities built a new and stronger system, which was ready for a new name in 1972.

1973 Chessie System Inc. was formed Feb.

In 1976, Congress stepped in to create Consolidated Rail Corporation - Conrail - out of the remains of those six railroads.

In 1981, Conrail had the first profitable year in its history.

In 1982 the Southern was merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway Company and thereafter was operated by Norfolk Southern Corporation, a holding company.

By 1985, 14 potential buyers had submitted bids for Conrail, and the Department of Transportation endorsed Norfolk Southern as the winning bidder.

The government ultimately opted to sell the railroad through a public offering, however, and in 1987 did so through what at the time was the largest initial public stock offering in the nation's history, totaling more than $1.8 billion.

On June 23, 1997, Norfolk Southern and CSX Corp. filed a joint application with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) for authority to operate the routes and assets of Conrail.

In mid-1998, the STB approved the Norfolk Southern-CSX application and set Aug.

Around 2000, The City of Bristol, Virginia purchased much of the land consisting of over 13 miles of former railroad right of way with plans to create what would now be know as the Mendota Trail.

The Project was held up for many years by lawsuits and finally Bristol gave up on their Trail effort in 2008.

In 2016, The City of Bristol, Virginia. gave away this land Right of Way to the Mountain Heritage Inc. nonprofit, and a new effort began to make the trail a reality.