The Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was built along the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

along the route of the

James River and Kanawha Canal The James River and Kanawha Canal was a partially built canal in Virginia intended to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast. Ultimately its towpath became the roadbed for ...

from

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

on the

Fall Line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is noticeable especially the place rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the ...

at the

head of navigation The head of navigation is the farthest point above the mouth of a river that can be navigated by ships. Determining the head of navigation can be subjective on many streams, as the point may vary greatly with the size or the draft of the ship b ...

to a point west of Lynchburg near

Buchanan, Virginia Buchanan ( ) is a town in Botetourt County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,196 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Roanoke metropolitan area. It was the western terminus of the James River and Kanawha ...

, and combined with the Buchanan and Clifton Forge Railway Company to reach

Clifton Forge, Virginia Clifton Forge is a town in Alleghany County, Virginia, United States which is part of the greater Roanoke Region. The population was 3,555 at the 2020 census. The Jackson River flows through the town, which as a result was once known as Ja ...

. The James River Subdivision is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line owned by

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 ...

in the

U.S. State In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. It was formerly part of the CSX Huntington East Division. It became part of the CSX

Florence Division The Florence Division is a railroad division operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia & West Virginia. The Florence Division has 60 Subdivisions. The Subdivision ...

on June 20, 2016. The line runs from

Gladstone, Virginia Gladstone is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community in Nelson County, Virginia, Nelson County, Virginia, United States. Edge Hill (Gladstone, Virginia), Edge Hill was added to the National Register of Historic Places in ...

for a total of 110.2 miles. At its east end it continues west from the

Rivanna Subdivision The Rivanna Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of Virginia. It was formerly part of the CSX Huntington East Division. It became part of the CSX Florence Division on June 20, 2016. The line runs from Rich ...

and at its west end it continues west as the Alleghany Subdivision.

History

Long a dream of early Virginians such as

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

, the

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

was never completed as envisioned to link the James and

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

s. Beginning in the 1830s,

s overtook canals as a preferred technology for transportation in

. The

was conveyed to the new railroad company by a deed dated March 4, 1880. Railroad construction workers promptly started laying tracks on the

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, Working animal, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mod ...

. The company constructed the railroad using

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

convict laborers from Virginia penitentiaries."United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YBG-9MPZ?cc=1417683&wc=XCF3-W38%3A1589415431%2C1589415781%2C1589415008%2C1589395080 : 24 December 2015), Virginia > Botetourt > Fincastle > ED 11 > images 58 through 61 of 64; citing NARA microfilm publication T9, (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., n.d.) Led by Francis O. French of New York and later starting in 1884 by James T Closson of New York the new railroad offered a water-level route from

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

to Clifton Forge through the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the United States, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern ...

at Balcony Falls. In 1888 the railroad was leased, and later purchased, by Collis P. Huntington's

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...

(merger with C&O occurred in 1889 ). Today, the former Richmond and Alleghany Railroad is a major route of

. It forms the Rivanna and James River subdivisions. The eastern terminus is Richmond's

Main Street Station Main Street station may refer to: Canada * Main Street station (Toronto), a subway station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada * Main Street–Science World station, a SkyTrain station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada United Kingdom * Main Street ra ...

. It meets the former

Virginia Central Railroad The Virginia Central Railroad was an early railroad in the U.S. state of Virginia that operated between 1850 and 1868 from Richmond westward for to Covington. Chartered in 1836 as the Louisa Railroad by the Virginia General Assembly, the railr ...

(now operated by the

Buckingham Branch Railroad 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 Dill ...

, a short-line operator) at Rivanna Junction. <1. Laura E Armitage. "The Richmond and Alleghany," THE RAILWAY AND LOCOMOTIVE SOCIETY BULLETIN, No. 88 (May, 1953) pp. 59–68.> <2. Mary Lynn Bayliss, THE DOOLEYS OF RICHMOND: AN IRISH IMMIGRANT FAMILY IN THE OLD AND NEW SOUTH, University of Virginia Press, 2017, p. 125>

References

External links

Virginia Places - Geography of Virginia
great explanation of the R&A and maps
Richmond Riverfront - Canal History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richmond Alleghany Railroad Transportation in Richmond, Virginia Defunct Virginia railroads Predecessors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Railway companies established in 1878 Railway companies disestablished in 1889