the Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad (red), and the formerly-shared track from Gordonsville-Charlottesville (yellow)
Source: Library of Congress, Post route map of the state of Virginia and West Virginia (1896)
the Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad (red), and the formerly-shared track from Gordonsville-Charlottesville (yellow)
Source: Library of Congress, Post route map of the state of Virginia and West Virginia (1896)
The Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad existed between 1876-1914.
When first chartered by the General Assembly in 1848, the Orange & Alexandria Railroad was authorized to build south from Alexandria to a junction with the Virginia Central in Gordonsville. In 1854, the track was completed and the company obtained a revised charter allowing it to build from Charlottesvile south to Lynchburg. That extension, with connections at the James River to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and the South Side Railroad, was completed in 1860.
Orange & Alexandria Railroad trains had to use the original Virginia Central Railroad track for over 20 miles between Gordonsville and Charlottesville. In 1868, the Virginia Central had become part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and it continued to offer trackage rights for that stretch.
The Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad was chartered in 1876 to close the gap, eliminating the need for two railroads to coordinate train movements to avoid collision. After the Civil War, the Orange & Alexandria Railroad had joined with the Manassas Gap Railroad to form the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railroad.
The Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad gained control of the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railroad in 1872, as part of its strategy to develop a trunk line from the southern states to the port at Baltimore. Its primary competitor in that strategy was the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Virginia railroad companies were impoverished by the Civil War, and were acquired by northern investors who were reshaping the railroad networks.
An economic recession in 1873 forced the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railroad into bankruptcy, but the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad retained control. During the receivership, the trustees recognized that the railroad's economic recovery required eliminating the gap between Orange and Charlottesville. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad did not want to be dependent upon a rival who might control traffic for that stretch.
The Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad was chartered as an independent corporation in 1876, but at the beginning it was leased for 34 years to the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railroad. Construction started at Orange Court House, creating an additional five miles for the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railroad to reach Charlottesville. That allowed the railroad to gather traffic between Orange and Charlottesville, business which had been prohibited since trackage rights had been used on the Virginia Central starting in 1854.
Construction was completed in 1880.
the Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad (blue) was completed in 1880 and leased by the Virginia Midland Railway, which was leased by the Richmond and Danville Railroad in 1886
Source: New York Public Library, Map showing the location of battle fields of Virginia (1891)
The Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad technically stayed as an independent corporation, leased by four other railroads, until 1914.
The Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railroad emerged from bankruptcy as the Virginia Midland Railway in 1881. The Richmond and Danville Railroad gained control of it in 1886. The independent-but-leased status of the Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad did not change then, or when the Southern Railway was formed in 1894 after the bankruptcy of the Richmond and Danville Railroad.
In 1914, the Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad finally was merged into the Southern Railway. Since 1984, it has been part of the Northern Southern Railroad.1
"the Charlottesville & Rapidan Railroad is now part of the Norfolk Southern
Source: Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT), Virginia Rail Map (2019)
1. "Charlottesville and Rapidan Railroad," World Heritage Encyclopedia, ; "Central Virginia Railroad History," CvilleRail and the Piedmont Rail Coalition, http://www.cvillerail.org/centralvarailhistory.html; Charles Minor Blackford, Legal History of the Virginia Midland Railway Co., and of the Companies Which Built Its Lines of Road, J. P. Bell & Company (Lynchburg), 1881, pp.52-75, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015006370533; Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Valuation reports, Volume 37, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1932, pp.7-8, https://books.google.com/books?id=Kp8FAAAAIAAJ (last checked July 14, 2020)