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![]() A preserved Chesepeake Western ALCO T-6 | |
Overview | |
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Current operator | Norfolk Southern |
Reporting mark | CHW |
Locale | Virginia |
Dates of operation | 1896 (as Chesapeake & Western Railroad)–present |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Chesapeake Western Railway( reporting mark CHW) is an intrastate railroad in west-central Virginia and an operating subsidiary of the Norfolk Southern Railway. Previously an independent railroad which began operation in 1896, the line technically survives as part of Norfolk Southern. The line was locally known as the "Crooked and Weedy" and "General Robert E. Lee’s Railroad" during its independent operation. [1]
The history of the line dates back to 1871, where a narrow-gauge line named the Washington, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad was chartered in 1871 as to connect Washington, D.C. to the Midwest at Cincinnati, Ohio. Little was done with this, but in 1892 a version of the railroad was revived when several businessman chartered it with the intentions of constructing a trunk line. Nothing was done with these proposals other grading some land. The name was changed to Chesapeake & Western Railroad when actual construction on the line began in 1895. The line officially opened on March 23, 1896 in Harrisonburg, and went both east and west. [2] In 1901, a businessman named W.E.D. Stokes bought the line and renamed it to the Chesapeake Western Railway. [3] To the west, Bridgewater, Virginia was the original terminus, but the line was extended to Stokesville, a company town, by 1901. In 1933 the line was cut back to Bridgewater due to timber around the area drying up, and later to Dayton, Virginia. [4] To the east the line reached Elkton by 1896, where the line's main yard and shops were constructed. The line was experiencing a downturn in the 1930s, but was revived when bought by Donald W. Thomas on September 1,1938, who was able to purchase more modern equipment. [4] By the mid-1940s, the Chesapeake Western operated a total of 53.5 miles in the Shenandoah Valley and interchanges with the C&O, N&W, and Southern Railways. [1] On January 1, 1943 the railway purchased some of the former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's tracksfrom Harrisonburg, Virginia to Lexington, Virginia but abandoned the route from Staunton, Virginia, to Lexington, Virginia, due to a lack of freight traffic. [4]
The Norfolk & Western purchased the Chesapeake Western in 1954, ending its status as an independent railroad. [3] The Chesapeake Western survived as a separate entity from Norfolk & Western for a several years until the merger of the Norfolk & Western Railway and the Southern Railway in the 1980s, becoming part of Norfolk Southern. [4] Norfolk Southern upgraded the route after buying the railway, installing continuous welded rail over much of the route and replacing the bridge at Elkton which was destroyed by a flood in 1985. The shops at Elkton were razed in 1989. [5]
A historical marker was placed near the location of Stokesville at Stokesville Community Church to commemorate the history of the town, although most of it was destroyed by natural disasters in 1949. [6] At least one Chesepeake Western locomotive has been preserved and is displayed at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. [7] In addition, the old Chesapeake Western Station remains standing in downtown Harrisonburg.
The Chesapeake Western Railway is currently a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Railway and operates three rail lines under their ownership - Elkton to Dayton, Harrisonburg to Pleasant Valley, and Harrisonburg to Bowman. The railway is mainly used as an extension of Norfolk Southern and locomotives used on the lines are from Norfolk Southern. [2] Traffic is mainly agricultural products, paper, and other manufactured items. A portion of the line south of Harrisonburg between Pleasant Valley, Virginia and continuing to Staunton, Virginia is now owned and operated by the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. [8]
Rockingham County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,757. Its county seat is the independent city of Harrisonburg.
Woodstock is a town and the county seat of Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. It has a population of 5,212 according to the 2017 census. Woodstock comprises 3.2 square miles of incorporated area of the town, and is located along the "Seven Bends" of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. While some tourism references list Woodstock as the fourth oldest town in Virginia, the area was sparsely settled and perhaps platted in 1752 or shortly thereafter, but the town was actually established by charter in 1761. While there are a number of Virginia towns closer to the eastern seaboard that claim earlier founding dates, Woodstock was one of the first towns west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Shenandoah Valley is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The Valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, to the north by the Potomac River, to the south by the James River, and to the Southwest by the New River Valley. The cultural region covers a larger area that includes all of the Valley plus the Virginia Highlands to the west and the Roanoke Valley to the south. It is physiographically located within the Ridge and Valley Province and is a portion of the Great Appalachian Valley.
The Norfolk and Western Railway, commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precision Transportation"; it had a variety of nicknames, including "King Coal" and "British Railway of America". In 1986, N&W merged with Southern Railway to form today's Norfolk Southern Railway.
Buckingham Branch Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad operating over 275 miles (443 km) of historic and strategic trackage in Central Virginia. Sharing overhead traffic with CSX and Amtrak, the company's headquarters are in Dillwyn, Virginia in the former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) station, itself a historic landmark in the community. The railroad was featured in the January 2012 issue of Trains Magazine. It is referenced in the How It’s Made episode “Railway Bridge Ties”, showing it crossing a curved bridge.
Transportation in the Commonwealth of Virginia is by land, sea and air. Virginia's extensive network of highways and railroads were developed and built over a period almost 400 years, beginning almost immediately after the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and often incorporating old established trails of the Native Americans.
The Valley Baseball League is an NCAA and MLB-sanctioned collegiate summer baseball league in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia.
The Rockingham County Baseball League is a summer baseball league in Rockingham County, Virginia and neighboring areas. It was founded in 1924 and is one of the oldest continuous baseball leagues in the country. The league has included teams from across Rockingham County and up and down the Shenandoah Valley. As of 2024, the RCBL has 8 teams and has a 24-game regular season schedule where every team plays each other 3 to 4 times. The quarterfinal round of the playoffs is best out of three games, the semifinal round is best out of five games, and the championship round is best out of seven games.
The Shenandoah Valley Railroad is a shortline railroad operating 20.2 miles (32.5 km) of track between Staunton and Pleasant Valley, Virginia. The railroad interchanges with CSX and Buckingham Branch in Staunton and Norfolk Southern in Pleasant Valley. The railroad was purchased from Norfolk Southern in 1993 and is currently operated by the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad.
Shenandoah Valley Railroad was a line completed on June 19, 1882, extending up the Shenandoah Valley from Hagerstown, Maryland through the West Virginia panhandle into Virginia to reach Roanoke, Virginia and to connect with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). The development of this railroad had considerable backing from the Pennsylvania Railroad. In September 1890 it went into bankruptcy and was reorganized as the Shenandoah Valley Railway. In December 1890, it became part of N&W. Today the tracks are a major artery of the Norfolk Southern system.
The 3A Valley District is a district in Region 3C of the Virginia High School League. As the district's name implies, all the schools are located in the central part of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, along Interstate 81. Most of the member schools are part of the Harrisonburg areas.
U.S. Route 33 is a part of the U.S. Highway System that runs from Elkhart, Indiana to Richmond, Virginia. In Virginia, the U.S. Highway runs 135.60 miles (218.23 km) from the West Virginia state line near Rawley Springs east to its eastern terminus at SR 33 in Richmond. US 33 is the primary east–west highway of Rockingham County, which lies in the Shenandoah Valley. The highway connects the independent city of Harrisonburg, the town of Elkton, and an entrance to Shenandoah National Park. East of the Blue Ridge Mountains, US 33 connects the Piedmont communities of Stanardsville, Gordonsville, and Louisa. The U.S. Highway is a major suburban and urban route in the Richmond metropolitan area. Within Richmond, US 33 runs concurrently with US 250. SR 33 continues from US 33's eastern terminus as a state-numbered extension of the U.S. Highway that connects Richmond with Virginia's Middle Peninsula.
Interstate 81 (I-81) is an 855.02-mile-long (1,376.02 km) Interstate Highway. In the US state of Virginia, I-81 runs for 324.92 miles (522.91 km), making the portion in Virginia longer than any other state's portion of the route. It is also the longest Interstate Highway within the borders of Virginia. It stretches from the Tennessee state line near Bristol to the West Virginia state line near Winchester. It enters Virginia from Bristol, Tennessee, and leaves Virginia into Berkeley County, West Virginia. The route passes through the cities of Bristol, Roanoke, Lexington, Staunton, and Harrisonburg.
The Manassas Gap Railroad (MGRR) ran from Mount Jackson, Virginia, to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad's Manassas Junction, which later became the city of Manassas, Virginia. Chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1850, the MGRR was a 4 ft 8 in narrow gauge line whose 90 completed miles of track included 38 miles (61 km) of 60 pounds-per-yard T-rail and 52 miles (84 km) of 52 pounds-per-yard T-rail. A total of nine locomotives and 232 cars were operated on the line, serving 20 stations.
Mount Solon is an unincorporated community in Augusta County, Virginia, United States, 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Harrisonburg and 20 miles (32 km) north of Staunton. It is part of the Staunton–Waynesboro Micropolitan Statistical Area.
William Earle Dodge Stokes was an American multimillionaire who developed many buildings on New York City's Upper West Side.
The Allegany Central Railroad was a tourist railroad that took place in three different locations from the 1970s to the 1990s. It originally operated in Covington, Virginia, before ownership disputes moved it to Cumberland, Maryland. From there, ownership disputes moved it again to Staunton, Virginia. Rising insurance costs shut down the railroad altogether by the end of the 1990s.
The Atlantic and Danville Railway was a Class I railroad which operated in Virginia and North Carolina. The company was founded in 1882 and opened its mainline between Portsmouth, Virginia and Danville, Virginia in 1890. The Southern Railway leased the company from 1899–1949. The Norfolk and Western Railway purchased the company in 1962 and reorganized it as the Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railway.
State Route 280 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The highway runs 5.0 miles (8.0 km) from SR 42 in Harrisonburg east to U.S. Route 33 in Massanetta Springs in central Rockingham County. SR 280 is a four-lane southern bypass of Harrisonburg that connects SR 42 and US 33 with US 11 and SR 253 outside of the city core.