Virginia Central Railroad - History

History

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 westward. The railroad, as specified by the original charter, was to connect with the RF&P near Taylorsville 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 stock sold to finance the railroad's construction.

Construction of the Louisa Railroad began in October, 1836, reaching the Louisa courthouse by 1839, and by 1840 had reached Gordonsville, Virginia. The railroad had been planned by its original charter to build across the Blue Ridge mountains to Harrisonburg, but in 1839, the Commonwealth requested a survey to be conducted to determine a feasible route to Staunton, Virginia by way of Charlottesville. Ultimately, this route, which passed over the mountains at Rockfish Gap, was chosen as a better alternative than the original plan to cross at Swift Run Gap to the north. In 1847, the charter was modified by the Assembly to provide for the railroad's construction to the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, and in 1849, the Blue Ridge Railroad was chartered to cross the mountains at Rockfish Gap to Waynesboro, Virginia. Under the leadership of the great early civil engineer Claudius Crozet, the state-owned Blue Ridge Railroad built over the mountains using four tunnels, including the 4,262-foot (1,299m) Blue Ridge Tunnel at the top of the pass, then one of the longest tunnels in the world. Meanwhile, the Louisa Railroad had reached the Rivanna River near Charlottesville, Virginia by 1850 and by 1852 had reached Mechum's River, near the eastern end of the Blue Ridge Railroad.

In January, 1850, the Commonwealth authorized the Louisa Railroad to increase its stock in order to build from Staunton to Covington, Virginia. In February, 1850, the Louisa Railroad was renamed as the Virginia Central Railroad. While the Blue Ridge Mountain section was being breached, the Virginia Central was busy building westward from the western foot of the mountains, across the Shenandoah Valley to Staunton. In order to connect the eastern and western divisions of the railroad, a temporary track over Rockfish Gap was proposed by the railroad's chief engineer, Charles Ellet, Jr., and by 1854 had been constructed and was in use. This 5.47 mile long track, called the Mountain Track, included steep grades (maximum 5.6% with a ruling grade of 5.3%) and sharp curves (minimum radius of 300'), thereby limiting speeds to around 5-7 mph. Three small tank locomotives were ordered for the temporary track, one of which was supplied by the Tredegar Iron Works of Richmond, the Joseph R. Anderson, and two from Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, the Baldwin and C.R. Mason. The Mountain Track 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. 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 four tunnels (see table), and a temporary track approximately 1.25 miles 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 (note that in Virginia, Alleghany is spelled with an "a"). This location would later be known as Clifton Forge and become a division point for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

The eastern terminus of the Virginia Central was originally at Hanover Junction (now known as Doswell) with the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. The charter of that line protected it from construction of a parallel competitor, and a Virginia Supreme Court decision was necessary before the Virginia Central was allowed to extend its tracks easterly through Hanover and Henrico Counties to reach Richmond.

In 1859, the Virginia Central's line carried 134,883 passengers throughout the year, and hauled 64,177 tons of freight. The road connected Richmond to a point about ten miles east of Covington in the southwestern Shenandoah Valley (a distance of approximately 195 miles), where the proposed Covington and Ohio Railroad would have started. To finish its line across the mountainous territory of the Alleghany Plateau (known in old Virginia as the "Transmountaine"), the Commonwealth again chartered a state-subsidized railroad called the Covington and Ohio Railroad. This company began work in 1855 and completed important grading work on the Alleghany grade (to include 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.