Stations and Locations

ost visitors on the Potomac Eagle are unaware of the long but storied past of the South Branch Valley Railroad. The line has been a vital part of the valley from Green Spring to Petersburg for well over 100 years. The South Branch Valley Railroad (SBVR) comprises a 52.4-mile route from Petersburg to Green Spring where it links to the CSXT mainline connecting Cumberland, MD to Martinsburg, WV. The SBVR generally parallels the South Branch of the Potomac River – from which the railroad takes its name. Crossing Hampshire, Hardy and Grant counties, the SBVR serves the towns of Romney (2002 population: 1,940), Moorefield (2002 population: 2,375) and Petersburg (2002 population: 2,423). The railroad is headquartered in Moorefield. It is owned and operated by the West Virginia State Rail Authority (SRA). State employees perform maintenance and freight operations.

But at least one early effort to build the line was futile. In 1875 a group of residents of Kanawha County, West Virginia formed a company designated the West Virginia Railroad Company. The group obtained authority to cross the state with a railroad which would commence on the Kentucky state boundary line and pass through Cabell, Wayne, Putnam, Kanawha, Braxton, Clay, Webster, Upshur, Randolph, Pendleton, Hardy and Hampshire counties. The line was supposed to extend to a point near the South Branch River near the Maryland state boundary line. The charter, which is on record in the Hardy County Clerk’s Office, discloses that the proposed railroad was to follow in a general course, the South Branch River through Pendleton, Grant, Hardy and Hampshire counties.

While those pioneers had the best of intentions and dreams, the smoke from a locomotive in Hardy County was still not to be seen for many years. In February 1880, a company called the Cumberland, Moorefield and Petersburg Railroad was organized to build a line between Green Spring and Petersburg. Little is known of the company other than they did not get their line built. However, on Sept. 1, 1884, a new company called the South Branch Railroad completed the line from Green Spring to Romney.

Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad

hartered in October 1777 by the General Assembly of Virginia, Moorefield, the county seat of Hardy County, is the fourth-oldest town in West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the South Fork of the South Branch with the main South Branch of the Potomac, Moorefield was laid out on 62 acres of land belonging to Conrad Moore. The town was named for Moore, and his home, the Old Stone Tavern, still stands on Main Street. Early property owners included families with the names of Van Meter, Harness, McNeill, Renick, Hite, Cunningham, Williams, Inskeep, Fisher and Hutton. Moorefield has always been an agricultural community. The early settlers began farming the rich bottom land that surrounded the town, raising cattle, along with corn and hay for feed. From the 1930s, the poultry industry has been a significant economic factor, and Moorefield became known as the Poultry Capital of West Virginia.

Town of Moorefield, West Virginia

Petersburg is a city in Grant County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,423 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Grant County. Petersburg was founded circa 1745 by Jacob Peterson, who owned the area's first merchandising store. It was incorporated in 1910.

City of Petersburg, West Virginia