The short line that thinks it can
(The following article by Chip Jones was posted on the Richmond
RICHMOND, Va. – As Steve Powell watched two red and gray locomotives round a bend in northern Hanover County, he cracked a smile.
“It’s really just a relief to be out here because it’s been a year in the works,” he said.
Powell was referring to the expansion of Dillwyn-based Buckingham Branch Railroad, which yesterday took over operations for CSX Corp. on nearly 200 miles of track across Virginia.
Powell, assistant vice president and general manager of Buckingham Branch, was visiting the rail yard in Doswell to supervise the first train movements under the new arrangement with CSX.
The sound of hissing brakes and a ringing bell filled the air as a Buckingham Branch train delivered a load of pine logs to a MeadWestvaco Corp. wood yard.
By day’s end, Powell expected that his trains would serve many of the estimated 30 industrial clients on a backwoods rail line from Richmond through Hanover County, and west to Charlottesville, Staunton and Clifton Forge.
The deal marks a big step - and some risk - for Buckingham Branch, which for about 25 years has served a 17.3-mile-long stretch of railroad in Buckingham County.
One hopes that this not too big of a chunk of RR to start running. This is also part of the route of the Cardinal. Even I would have a hard time arguing that the Tri-weekly Cardinal is a vital route, but the ride through the New River Gorge is nothing short of spectacular.
The New River George is farther west, on the CSX line itself. In the old days, the George Washington, Fast Flying Virginian, and Sportsman, all turned north at Gordonsville, just east of Charlotteseville, and then joined the Southern line at Orange, and used Southern trackage rights to Alexandria and then the RF&P and Washington Trerminal to Washington. All three trains also had a Newport News connection that ran on this “Buckingham Branch?” line through Main Street Station in Richmond, and then on to Williamsburg and Newport News. Through Pullmans and sometimes through coaches as well. I gather now the Cardinal goes on to Richmond and then north on the CSX’s RF&P line, instead of using the NS north of Orange, the way it ran a number of years ago. As a youngster, even at age 10 and 11 by myself, a frequent Chirstmas or Easter trip was on the PRR to Washington, the C&O or Southern to Charlotteseville to visit one married sister, then on the C&O to Richmond to visit another (husband was an Air Force doctor and I got my first plane ride on an Army base), then the RF&P and PRR back to New York. Road behind SAL and Southern diesels, Southern PS-4’s, Chessie Hudsons and Greenbriers and Pacifics, RF&P 4-8-4’s, and of course lots of GG1’s. The SAL and ACL diesels usually were swapped for RF&P 4-8-4’s, occasionally even on the streamliners. Previously, I had mentioned that the Florida Special was a winter only train. The SAL had one too. The Orange Blossom Special. The East Coast and West Champions and the Silver Star and Silver Meteor were year round. I used whatever schedule was convenient, sometimes having reservations on the “Southerner”. I recall one early morning trying to return directly to New York and being refused boarding the Tennesean, all sold out, at Charlottesville, and waiting until the next C&O train came along. The C&O trains stopped both at the more eastern C&O station and at the Union Station where the C&O crossed the Southern (and I assume still does).
A check of the online Amtrak schedules shows the Cardinal has not been rerouted, and still runs on NS north of Orange. I’ve ridden that section a couple of times and it gets up near the 79 mph max…the former C&O track has a much lower limit close to 25 mph, maybe 40 in some sections. As for Charlottesville, it only stops at the shared station near the diamond.
For Dave Klepper. The George Washington, the Sportsman, and the FFV carried thru cars for both Newport News and Washington, DC; some of the Washington, DC thru sleepers on the FFV and the George Washington ran to New York. The train sections were split apart or assembled at Charlottesville’s Main Street Station.
The ex C&O Doswell station was a good location for photographing the westbound Newport News section of the George Washington, and usually the northbound RF&P # 375, The Everglades would pass shortly after the westbound George Washington passed.
The C&O’s tracks ran through the east side of the Main Stree Station, and most of the stops between Charlottesville and Richmond were flag stops.
As i understand it CSX will have trackage rights over the Buckingham Branch to move coal empties back to the mines.