Richmond & Alleghany Division

199 miles between Richmond, VA and Clifton Forge, VA

The Richmond & Alleghany Division became the second division of the Buckingham Branch Railroad in 2004 when the BB leased the track with operating rights from CSXT. The R & A Division encompasses 199.6 miles of track between downtown Richmond, VA and JD Cabin, just east of Clifton Forge, VA. The BB has trackage rights into CSXT's Clifton Forge yard for interchange purposes. The R & A enables the Buckingham Branch Railroad to provide direct rail and transload freight services from east to west across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The R & A Division has four Class 1 interchanges, two each with CSXT and Norfolk Southern. The CSXT interchanges are at Doswell, VA and Clifton Forge, VA, while the Norfolk Southern interchanges are at Charlottesville, VA and Waynesboro, VA. Multiple interchanges with both Class 1 railroads serving the eastern U.S. enable Buckingham Branch freight customers to get the best possible freight rates and schedules for connections to North America and the world. The R & A Division is divided into three subdivisions, the Piedmont Subdivision from Richmond to Gordonsville, the Orange Subdivision from Gordonsville to Orange, and the North Mountain Subdivision from Gordonsville to Clifton Forge. The BB Z629 and Z628 train crews are based in Doswell, the Z799 crew is based in Charlottesville, and the Z630 and Z631 crews operate out of Staunton.

BB Transload sites on the R & A are located at Doswell, Fishersville, Gordonsville, Keswick and Staunton. Points of freight origin and destination on the R & A include Ruffin, Richmond, Atlee, Doswell, Noel, Beaverdam, Mineral, Louisa, Gordonsville, Orange, Lindsay, Massie, Ivy, Crozet, Afton, Waynesboro, Brand, Easton, Staunton, LaGrange, North Mountain, Craigsville, Bells Valley, Goshen, Crane and Clifton Forge.

In addition to the Buckingham Branch local freight service, CSXT operates empty overhead trains across the R & A and Amtrak operates the Cardinal passenger train that runs between New York City and Chicago across 125 miles of the R & A. More than 150,000 freight and passenger railcars annually traverse the R & A Division. The Buckingham Branch is responsible for all track construction and maintenance, signals, and rail traffic control (dispatch) for all BB, CSXT and Amtrak trains. Together with the Marine Corps Reserve Association, the BB operates a Toys for Tots train each December to help provide holiday support for families across the western part of the R & A Division.

Buckingham Branch Railroad

In 1915, Staunton mayor Hampton Wayt addressed the Convention of the American Instructors of the Deaf. During his speech, he said, "I always speak in a modest vein when I speak of Staunton, the Queen City of the Valley. It is called Staunton from the wife of a former governor of this State, who was a woman of queenly graces of mind and heart. It received its name of the Queen City of the Valley because at one time it was the county seat of the largest county in the world, larger than Germany or France, and even larger than most of the principalities of Europe."

Staunton, Va. was settled in 1732. It was named for Lady Rebecca Staunton, wife of colonial governor Sir William Gooch. It was the capital of the Northwest Territory from 1738 to 1770. The Virginia General Assembly established Staunton as a town in 1761 and the town was formally incorporated in 1801. When the Virginia Central Railroad arrived in 1854, Staunton became a transportation hub, and during the Civil War, Staunton was the site of a supply base.

City of Staunton, Va

In 1850, Charlottesville welcomed its first railroad service, a technology that would later dramatically expand shipping through the area and bring more growth. Then, like any community in the South, the area lost many of its sons and brothers to the Civil War. Unlike many communities, however, the town itself was largely unscathed, despite its roles manufacturing Confederate uniforms and tending countless wounded Confederate soldiers at the overrun University hospital. By 1887, the city had received its first horse drawn streetcars and kept an extra horse on hand to help cars climbing Vinegar Hill, a stretch of rough, rocky grade on Main Street. In 1888, Charlottesville incorporated and annexed surrounding land to create a city of nearly 800 acres. The twentieth century brought more rail and trolley lines as well as paved roads, and although the area's culture and commerce remains rooted in agriculture, the G.I. Bill drove rapid expansion at the University after World War II, making it the area's largest employer. Today, the spirit of Thomas Jefferson draws millions of visitors from around the world. Agriculture still thrives in the region, creating a rich farm-to-table culinary culture complemented by one of the country's finest winemaking regions.

City of Charlottesville, Va

Gordonsville grew up around a tavern established by Nathaniel Gordon in 1794, where the circle is today. After the railroad arrived in 1840, development began around the rail depot at the other end of town. By the 1850s they were filling in the gap, which is Main Street Gordonsville today. Gordon first settled the area when he purchased a plantation "at the foot of the southwest mountains" in Orange County in 1787. Later, he opened a popular tavern which hosted Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Major General the Marquis de Lafayette, among other famous figures of early America. Jefferson told southern legislators it was a "good house" for stopping over on their way to Congress. The community became officially known as "Gordonsville" in 1813 when Gordon was appointed the first postmaster of the area surrounding his tavern.

Meanwhile, Gordonsville was a significant economic hub in the 19th century, becoming the center of trade in Orange County. It was a railroad junction with the north/south tracks of what was then the Orange & Alexandria, (today's CSX) and the east/west Virginia Central, connecting Richmond to Staunton. Also, two major roads connected Gordonsville to the breadbasket of the Confederacy, the Shenandoah Valley. Those roads today are Rt. 33, the Rockingham Turnpike to Swift Run Gap and Rt. 231, the Blue Ridge Turnpike. The convergence of those historic routes with Route 15, at the traffic circle, position Gordonsville on the way to Virginia destinations in every direction.

City of Gordonsville, Va

Orange was founded in the middle of the 18th century as a Courthouse town. A century later in 1854 Orange added a second dimension - it became a Railroad Town. In that year the southward crawl of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad reached Orange. Indeed, its rails bisected the public lot, interposing itself between the Courthouse, on the west side of the track, and the county jail, situated just east of this railroad station.

Living away from navigable waters in 19th century Virginia meant being "stuck in the mud" much of the year. A railroad promised some surcease from the sticky problem of Orange County's red clay, of which General Robert E. Lee had commented, "Orange County mud and Orange County girls; each makes an impression quite indelible." Thus, to aid in subduing the impressions of Orange's mud, county officials and citizens, such as Dr. James Minor, donated property for the right-of-way to insure that the rail line laid its tracks through the village.

For the next 125 years the railway was the principal artery of Orange’s commerce. All passenger trains, excepting expresses, stopped in Orange to drop and receive passengers and to deliver U.S. mail. Passengers were transported locally to Gordonsville, Charlottesville and Culpeper, and to connections to any place in the nation and the world.

Railroad Avenue, running southward from Main and Church Street, became the "high rent" district of Orange. Along the tracks were Levy's Busy Corner, the turn-of-the- century equivalent of a Wal-Mart store.

A fire, which began on Railroad Avenue in November 1908, destroyed about two thirds of Orange's businesses. Looking to the south and east from the vantage point of the railroad station, one can see only commercial buildings that were rebuilt in the decade following the fire.

Orange reached its peak as a rail center during World War II when more than 100 freight and passenger trains passed through every 24 hours. Orange youth went off to war as passengers on the railroad. Freight trains leaving Orange contributed to the war effort transporting wood products from Kentucky Flooring Company and local sawmills; parachutes manufactured at the American Silk Mill; and metalwork fabricated at Virginia Metal Products to be used in constructing gliders and landing ships.

The end of World War II saw the end of Orange as a railroad center. The automobile brought about the demise of rail passenger service and good highways led to the development of the trucking industry, which soon made serious inroads in the railway freight business.

By 1979, the town was unable to get Amtrak to maintain even a flag stop here. The railroad station closed its doors and sat idle, unused, for 17 years.

The Town of Orange received title to the property and began efforts to restore the station and on October 12, 1997, it was rededicated as the Orange Transportation Center. Today, Norfolk and Southern freight trains pass through Orange frequently and Amtrak trains; however, there are no passenger stops at any time.

Orange as a Railway Town - Paul Slayton