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Virginia Railroads Vol 2 Chesapeake & Ohio by Thomas W Dixon Jr
Virginia Railroads Vol 2 Chesapeake & Ohio by Thomas W Dixon Jr
Hard Cover
128 pages
Copyright 2011
CONTENTS
Introduction4
1 : Norfolk, Newport News, and the Peninsula Subdivision9
2 : Richmond27
3 : The Piedmont Subdivision35
4 : The Washington Subdivision43
5 : Charlottesville 49
6 : The Rivanna Subdivision56
7 : Gladstone69
8 : The James River Subdivision 71
9 : The Mountain Subdivision82
10 : Clifton Forge97
11: The Alleghany Subdivision 106
12 : Passenger Service
INTRODUCTION
This is the second in a series of books about railroads in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The first volume (published 2010), gives an overview of all the major railways with lines in Virginia and summarizes their history along with treatment of important short lines as well. This volume will deal with the Chesapeake & Ohio, which originated, and was headquartered in Virginia for many years.
The Chesapeake & Ohio was one of the nation's major railroad systems that had its origins in Virginia, and was very closely associated with the Commonwealth during a large portion of its existence. Its early existence as the Virginia Central was contained entirely within what is today Virginia, but after the War Between the States it expanded through what was previously the trans-Alleghany region of the old state, which after 1863 had become West Virginia. In the modern era, C&O expanded to Cincinnati, Chicago, Louisville, and Toledo in the west and Washington and Newport News in the east. After absorption of the Pere Marquette Railway it had numerous lines in Michigan and Ontario. It became most widely known for its coal traffic from the rich bituminous fields of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, and for a long time in the mid-20`h Century it was the world's largest originator of bituminous coal. In the early 1960s it joined the ancient Baltimore & Ohio in what was a merger all but in name, and in the 1972 the C&O, B&O, and Western Maryland joined to become Chessie System Railroads. In 1987 Chessie System merged with Seaboard System, which was an amalgam of southeastern railroads including the Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Louisville & Nashville, Clinchfield, Georgia, and other lines, to form today's giant CSX system.
The Chesapeake & Ohio's earliest predecessor line was the Louisa Railroad. The company was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly on February 18, 1836. Because the state subscribed a portion of the stock it was allowed to appoint two (later three) of the five directors, thus giving it a very strong influence on the line, which proved to be beneficial to the new railway in most respects. Frederick Harris of Frederick Hall in Louisa County, was elected the first president, serving until 1841 when he was succeeded by Charles Y. Kimbrough for a few years, and finally by Edmond Fontaine from 1845 until 1850 (and from 1850 to 1865 as president of the Virginia Central--see below).
The Louisa Railroad extended from Louisa Court House to Hanover Junction (now Doswell), where it joined the line operated by the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad. RF&P connected Richmond northward to Potomac Creek where steamboat connections delivered freight and passengers to Washington and points north. In later years it was completed to Washington.
The main reason for the Louisa Railroad was to help farmers get their products to market in Richmond. The line was leased to the RF&P until 1847 when the Louisa owners began independent operations. By 1851 it was extended into Richmond (over the objections of the RF&P), and in the west reached Gordonsville and Charlottesville. In line with the new ambitions of the road it was renamed Virginia Central in 1850, with a charter to build to Covington, at the foot of the Allgehanies, where connection would be made with a state-sponsored Covington & Ohio Railroad, leading to the Ohio River.
Between 1850 and 1857 the Virginia Central was built across the Blue Ridge through the help of the state-sponsored Blue Ridge Railroad, then across the Shenandoah Valley and North Mountain to Jackson's River Station (near Clifton Forge) about nine miles short of Covington. Here construction stopped and the War Between the States intervened.
Virginia Central was a very important Confederate supply line during the war, carrying huge amounts of goods and troops. It also was actually used in tactical operations. By the end of the war the railroad was badly damaged, yet by late 1865 was back in operation. The owners wanted to extend westward, and in 1869 were able to interest Collis P Huntington to back the venture. He was fresh from completing the Central Pacific portion of the Transcontinental Railroad and had the idea that he wanted to create a true transcontinental system under one person's control: his.
With Huntington's backing, the line, now renamed Chesapeake & Ohio, built across the wilds of the southern part of the new state of West Virginia (following the old line of the partially completed Covington & Ohio, another antebellum state venture), reaching the Ohio. The new line was opened in May 1873. Huntington's aim was to make C&O the eastern connection of his system of railroads from the west.
Initial traffic on the C&O was mainly local and consisted largely of mineral, forest, and farm products. It was not until the 1880s that coal traffic became important. It was coal that would make the C&O, and with each year that traffic grew.
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