the Nelson & Albemarle Railway linked soapstone quarries at Schuyler and Alberene with both the Southern Railway and the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railroad
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Covesville VA 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1929)
the Nelson & Albemarle Railway linked soapstone quarries at Schuyler and Alberene with both the Southern Railway and the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railroad
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Covesville VA 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1929)
The Nelson & Albemarle Railway was organized on September 14, 1903. As indicated by its name, the railroad was built to carry products to market from soapstone quarries in Nelson and Albemarle counties.
Prior to railroad construction, horses and mules hauled soapstone products from the Albemarle Soapstone Company in Alberene to North Garden station on the Virginia Midland Railroad, and from the Virginia Soapstone Company mill at Schuyler to that railroad's depot at Rockfish. The different soapstone companies initiated separate railroads to reduce their transportation costs, before the lines were combined to form the Nelson & Albemarle Railway.
before the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railroad completed its Alberene Branch, horses and mules hauled soapstone from Alberene to the North Garden station of the Southern Railway
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Covesville VA 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1929)
The Albemarle Soapstone Company arranged for the Alberene Railroad to get a General Assembly in 1895. The railroad completed building 11 miles of track in 1898, connecting the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railway at Warren to the quarry at Alberene.
The route to the James River, via Esmont, meant that trains loaded with Albemarle Soapstone Company products would go downhill to the depot at Warren, 241 feet above sea level. Locomotives would pull only empty cars back to the quarry, 541 feet above sea level.
An alternative route, following the wagon road to North Garden through the water gap created by the South Fork of the Hardware River between Fan Mountains and Ammonett Mountain/Gay Mountain, would have been shorter. However, that route would have required hauling cars loaded with heavy soapstone uphill to what became a Southern Railway depot at 653 feet in elevation.
The Alberene Railroad took advantage of the valley carved by Ballinger Creek.
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway leased the Alberene Railroad between 1898-1902, at which time it absorbed it into the company and named it the Alberene Branch. In addition to soapstone, it hauled slate from the Blue Ridge Slate Quarry and mill at Esmont and ice fronm an ice plant there.1
"The Alberene Railroad," Nelson & Albemarle Railway Historical Society, July 2012, https://sites.google.com/site/nelsonalbemarle/archive-this-month-s-articles/july-2012-article; "Track Elevations," Nelson & Albemarle Railway Historical Society, https://sites.google.com/site/nelsonalbemarle/archive-this-month-s-articles/track-elevations (last checked May 19, 2020)
The Virginia Soapstone Company got a charter for the Schuyler Railway in 1901. It completed an electrified rail line between Rockfish Depot on the Southern Railway and the soapstone quarry/mill at Schuyler. That route required hauling loaded cars uphill from the quarry, 404 feet above sea level, to the depot at 541 feet above sea level. Passengers using the Schuyler Railway sat in streetcars purchased secondhand from the Lynchburg Street Railway system. The Nelson & Albemarle Railway replaced the initial electric line with standard gauge track and started using steam locomotives.
The Virginia Soapstone Company merged with the Albemarle Soapstone Company in 1904 to form the Virginia Alberene Company. In 1916, that became part of the Virginia Alberene Company. The Alberene Stone Company acquired it during the Great Depression. An Aberene Stone Company is still quarrying soapstone 1
"A Guide To The Nelson And Albemarle Railway Company Papers, 1905-1990 (1905-1911)," Library of Virginia, ">http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=uva-sc/viu01622.xml;query=Alberene%20Stone;brand=default; "Track Elevations," Nelson & Albemarle Railway Historical Society, https://sites.google.com/site/nelsonalbemarle/archive-this-month-s-articles/track-elevations (last checked May 19, 2020)
The Nelson & Albemarle Railway absorbed the Schuyler Railway in 1905. It was extended to Alberene in 1906, so the mills there could process soapstone quarried at Schulyer after the supply at Alberene was exhausted in 1908.
East of Schuyler, the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railroad built a branch line from the James River at Warren, going up Ballinger Creek to the Blue Ridge Slate Company at Esmont and on to Alberene. The Nelson and Albemarle Railway built track east of Schuyler to connect with the C&O's Alberene Branch. The railroad ended up acquiring that portion of the track north of the Blue Ridge Slate Company at Esmont, plus trackage rights over the stretch of the Chesapeake & Ohio between Esmont and Warren.
The quarries could move stone on their own schedule between mills at the quarries, until the Alberence facilities were closed in 1916 and the machinery moved to Schuyler. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad retained the freight business from the slate quarry, and hauled all products from Warren to market.
the Nelson & Albemarle Railway acquired trackage rights over the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railroad Alberene Branch, between Esmont and Warren
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Covesville VA 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1929)
With completion of the Nelson & Albemarle Railway, the Alberene Stone Company could ship via the Chesapeake and Ohio to customers east and west of Albemarle County, and via the Southern Railway to customers north and south.
In 1917, the Alberene Stone Company purchased the Old Dominion Soapstone Company and acquired two locomotives from it.
The portion of the railroad linking Alberene-Esmont closed during the Great Depression.1
On September 18, 1944, a flood along the Rockfish Railroad destroyed the trackbed between Schuyler and Rockfish Depot. After the flood, all shipments moved east through Esmont to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Passenger service on the Nelson & Albemarle Railway ended in 1950. All freight operations ceased in 1963.1
"The Alberene Railroad," Nelson & Albemarle Railway Historical Society, July 2012, https://sites.google.com/site/nelsonalbemarle/archive-this-month-s-articles/july-2012-article; "Schuyler Historic District," National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, February 5, 2007, https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/062-5002_SchuylerHD_2006_NRfinal.pdf (last checked May 19, 2020)
a 1944 flood on the Rockfish River ended the operations of the Nelson & Albemarle Railway between Schuyler and Rockfish Depot on the Southern Railway
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Schuyler VA 1:24,000 scale topographic quadrangle (1967)
The Waltons television show was based on the real family of Earl Hamner in Schuyler. His father was a machinist for The Alberene Stone Company, and the family home highlighted in the television series was a company house built in 1915.1 "The Walton Hamner House," https://thewaltonhamnerhouse.com (last checked May 20, 2020)
the former route of the Nelson & Albemarle Railway along Ballinger Creek was documented in a 1967 topographic quadrangle map
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Esmont VA 1:24,000 scale topographic quadrangle (1967)