The Virginia Central Railroad was an early railroad in the
U.S. Supreme Court, the Louisa Railroad was allowed to expand eastward from a point near Doswell
to Richmond.
Renamed as the Virginia Central Railroad in 1850, the railroad bypassed the under construction Blue Ridge Railroad via a temporary track built over
Union Cavalry
, the railroad faced significant action against it during the war. Although the war left the railroad with only a fraction of its line left operable, the railroad was running over its entire pre-war length by July 1865.
After the war, both longtime president Edmund Fontaine and former Confederate General
still use portions of the old Virginia Central line for freight and passenger rail service.
Louisa Railroad
The Virginia General Assembly passed on February 18, 1836, an act to incorporate the Louisa Railroad company to construct a rail line extending from the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RF&P) westward. The railroad, as specified by the original charter, was to connect with the RF&P near Taylorsville, at what would become Hanover Junction, and extend westward, passing the Louisa courthouse, to Orange County at the base of the Southwest Mountains. The Virginia Board of Public Works owned two-fifths of the total $300,000 ($10,987,200 today) stock sold to finance the railroad's initial construction.[3]
Construction of the Louisa Railroad began in October 1836, reaching the Louisa courthouse by 1839, and by 1840 had reached
Blue Ridge Railroad was chartered to cross the mountains at Rockfish Gap to Waynesboro.[6]Claudius Crozet was appointed Chief Engineer of the Blue Ridge Railroad, and under his leadership and direction, the railroad began construction over the Blue Ridge using a series of four tunnels.[7] Meanwhile, the Louisa Railroad had reached the Rivanna River near Charlottesville by 1850 and by 1852 had reached Mechums River, near the eastern end of the Blue Ridge Railroad.[4]
Operation of the Louisa Railroad was initially handled by the RF&P, beginning with the first operation of a train over Louisa Railroad tracks on December 20, 1837.[8] This condition continued until June 1847, when the Louisa Railroad took over operations.[9]
The eastern terminus of the Louisa Railroad was originally at Hanover Junction (now known as Doswell) with the RF&P Railroad. The charter of that line protected it from construction of a parallel competitor, but an act by the Virginia General Assembly in 1848 authorized the extension of the Louisa Railroad easterly through
The first president of the Louisa Railroad was Frederick Overton Harris, a native of Louisa County, who served until 1841. After Harris' term, Charles Y. Kimbrough, also from Louisa, served until 1845, when Edmund Fontaine was elected to office upon Kimbrough's death. Edmund Fontaine would continue to serve as president of the Louisa Railroad and its successor until after the American Civil War.[11]
Further expansion as the Virginia Central
While the Blue Ridge Mountain section was being breached, the Louisa Railroad was busy building westward from the western foot of the mountains, across the Shenandoah Valley to Staunton. In January 1850, the Commonwealth authorized the Louisa Railroad to increase its stock in order to build from Staunton to Covington.[12] On February 2, 1850, the Louisa Railroad, having expanded greatly since its beginnings in Louisa and Hanover counties, was renamed as the Virginia Central Railroad.[13]
Tunnels on the Virginia Central Railroad[14][15][16]
In order to connect the eastern and western divisions of the railroad at this time divided by the unfinished Blue Ridge Railroad, a temporary track over Rockfish Gap was proposed by the railroad's chief engineer,
Philadelphia, the Baldwin and C.R. Mason.[19] A second temporary track 1⁄2-mile-long (0.80 km) around the Brooksville Tunnel and a third 3⁄4-mile-long (1.2 km) around Robertson's hollow were also constructed.[9] The temporary tracks successfully joined the railroad and by eliminating the extra cost and effort of removing freight and passengers from trains for transport over the mountains, facilitated further growth and expansion westward.[20]
Construction continued from Staunton through a water gap near Goshen at Great North Mountain by 1855, and had reached Millboro by 1856. This western section of the line included an additional three tunnels, and a temporary track approximately 1.25 miles (2.01 km) long was used at Millboro while the tunnel was being completed. By 1857, the railroad had reached a point known as Jackson's River Station, at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains. This location would later be known as Clifton Forge and become a division point for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.[21][22]
The temporary track over Rockfish Gap was used until the Blue Ridge Tunnel's opening in April 1858, and the last train to use the temporary track did so on the evening of April 12. That night, the connection with the completed Blue Ridge Railroad was made, and on the morning of the 13th, the mail train was the first train routed through the tunnel. With the tunnel in use, the temporary track was promptly torn up.[23] At the time of the Blue Ridge Tunnel's completion, it was the longest tunnel in the United States and the first tunnel in the country to be completed without the use of vertical shafts.[24] Although the Virginia Central did not own the Blue Ridge Railroad, it was granted the right to operate it from the Commonwealth of Virginia in return for an annual fee.[25]
In 1859, the Virginia Central's line carried 134,883 passengers throughout the year, and hauled 64,177 tons of freight.[26] The road connected Richmond to a point about 10 miles (16 km) east of Covington, where the proposed Covington and Ohio Railroad would have started, a distance of approximately 195 miles (314 km).[27] In February 1853, the Commonwealth of Virginia had chartered the Covington and Ohio Railroad to extend the line completed by the Virginia Central westward across the Alleghany Mountains to the Ohio River. This company began work in 1855 and completed important grading work on the Alleghany grade, including the construction of numerous tunnels, and, to a lesser extent, in the areas around Charleston and the Kanawha River. However, as the American Civil War began in 1861, westward expansion came to a halt and the Covington and Ohio's line remained incomplete.[7]
The Virginia Central was one of the most important railroads for the
U.S. Postal Service before the war, to carry mail over its line. This service, along with passenger and general goods transport, became less reliable as the transport of military goods and troops took precedence.[31]
As the war progressed, the railroad continually fell into a state of disrepair due to its constant use and the limited availability of supplies for upkeep.[32] Union raids also destroyed many sections of the line, including the majority of the railroad's depots, with notable exceptions for those at Gordonsville and Charlottesville, two key points of trade.[33] The defeat of Jubal Early's forces at Waynesboro led to the destruction of much of the bridges and line between Staunton and Keswick, and as Union armies converged on Richmond, further damage was done to the eastern section of the railroad.[34] By the end of the war, the railroad operated less than 20 miles (32 km) of track[35] and held only $40 ($796.17 today) in gold.[7]
During the
Trevilian Station on the Virginia Central's line. Confederate forces succeeded in pushing Sheridan back, who at 10:00 pm of the 12th withdrew towards the Army of the Potomac.[37] Little damage was done to the tracks during the raid, and the damage was soon repaired and the line returned to operation.[36]