The Chesapeake and Albemarle Railroad is a

short-line railroad A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are ...

that operates of track from

Chesapeake, Virginia Chesapeake is an independent city in Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,422, making it the second-most populous city in Virginia, the tenth largest in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 92nd-most populous city in the ...

Edenton, North Carolina The town of Edenton is located on the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. It is the county seat of Chowan County. The population was 4,397 at the 2020 census. Edenton served as the second official capital of North Carol ...

History

The railroad was originally part of the

Norfolk Southern Railroad The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The compa ...

, which continued south, crossing the Albemarle Sound and on to Mackeys Ferry and Plymouth. The railroad was started as part of Norfolk Southern's

Thoroughbred Shortline Program The Thoroughbred Shortline Program was a system of shortline creation devised by Norfolk Southern in the late 1980s. It involved an alternative to the typical practice of a Class I railroad selling rail lines outright to shortlines in the post-St ...

, where low density lines were handed over to shortline operators. The current railroad began operations in 1990, was acquired by

RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it t ...

in 2000, and subsequently acquired by the

Genesee & Wyoming Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is an American short line railroad holding company, that owns or maintains an interest in 122 railroads in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom; and formerly in Australia. ...

in 2012. With the acquisition of the railroad by

, the railroad made the decision to lower track speeds from 25-35mph to 10-25mph. The railroad was fined around $15,100 for a spill of

diesel fuel Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a re ...

in August 2010 after a derailment on 26 March 2010 spilled around of fuel into the

Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a Navigability, inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, the ...

. In 2022 and 2023, the line was given money from the North Carolina government as part of a wider plan to help improve infrastructure on shortline railroads in the state. On June 17, 2024, the line was closed indefinitely following a train derailment in

Chesapeake Chesapeake most often refers to: *Chesapeake people, a Native American tribe also known as the Chesepian *Chesapeake Bay *Delmarva Peninsula, also known as the Chesapeake Peninsula Chesapeake may also refer to: Populated places In Virginia * ...

. The line will be out of service for an unknown duration until the incident is handled, as the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

was notified, and repairs are made.

Services

C&A interchanges with both

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

, and the Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad. The railroad's traffic comes mainly from stone and chemical products, along with smaller amounts of potash, lumber, and cement. The CA hauled around 3,300 carloads in 2008. Some of the main businesses on the line are Vulcan Materials in

Elizabeth City Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank county, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and most populous city of Pasquotank County. It is the cultural, economic and educational h ...

, aprocessor of aggregate stone; Universal Forest Products in Elizabeth City, distributor of forest products; and FP Wood Grain Co. of Camden, a distributor of agricultural commodities.

References

External links

Chesapeake and Albemarle Railroad official webpage - Genesee & Wyoming websiteAmerican Short Line & Regional Railroad Association: CA
on HawkinsRails North Carolina railroads Virginia railroads RailAmerica Spin-offs of the Norfolk Southern Railway {{US-rail-company-stub