the Interstate Railroad used an orange paint scheme, as shown on one locomotive that Norfolk Southern painted in 2012 to honor its 30th anniversary
Source: Norfolk Southern, Our Colorful Heritage
the Interstate Railroad used an orange paint scheme, as shown on one locomotive that Norfolk Southern painted in 2012 to honor its 30th anniversary
Source: Norfolk Southern, Our Colorful Heritage
The Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad was a short-lived corporation, last just five years between 1867-1872.
Stockholders of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and the Manassas Gap Railroad got a new charter from the Virginia General Assembly on February 14, 1867 to combine the two railroads into the Orange, Alexandria, and Manassas Railroad. Both railroads had been heavily damaged by the Union and Confederate forces, especially the partisan rangers of Colonel John Mosby.
At the time of the merger in 1867, the Manassas Gap Railroad was thought to have just nominal value. No matter how many shares of Manassas Gap Railroad were surrendered to complete the merger legally, just one share of Orange, Alexandria, and Manassas Railroad stock was issued in exchange to the private investors of that line. Rockingham County was given 15 shares, Warren County was given five shares, and the town of Woodstock received one share. The 1867 charter for a new railroad to add one member of its board from the Piedmont counties crossed by the Manassas Gap Railroad, and one from west of the Blue Ridge.
The Orange, Alexandria, and Manassas Railroad rebuilt the old Manassas Gap Railroad, and completed construction of track into Harrisonburg in 1868.
1
J. Randolph Kean, "The Development of the 'Valley Line' of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 60, Number 4 (October, 1952), https://www.jstor.org/stable/4245875; Peter Cozzens, Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign, University of North Carolina Press, 2008, p.26, https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/nWrXIxiu_RcC; Charles Minor Blackford, Legal History of the Virginia Midland Railway Co., and of the Companies which Built Its Lines of Road, J.P. Bell, 1881, pp.25-27, https://books.google.com/books?id=vV4EAAAAMAAJ (last checked June 20, 2020)
During Reconstruction, investors in both the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and the Manassas Gap Railroad were forced to cede control to new investors from northern states. the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad was competing with the Pennsylania Railroad to build a network of allied/controlled railroads into the southern states. After a political maneuver, in 1870 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad lost control of the Long Bridge across the Potomac River and the railroad connecting it to Alexandria. The Pennsylvania Railroad monopolized control starting in 1872, after completing the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad into the District of Columbia and acquiring the Alexandria & Washington Railroad south of the river.
The B&O responded by gaining control of the Orange, Alexandria, and Manassas Railroad in 1872. That limited the ability of the Pennsylvania Railroad to benefit from its Alexandria connection.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad renamed its acquisition the Washington City, Virginia Midland, and Great Southern Railroad Company. Starting in 1874 it also opened a "car float" on the Potomac River, ferrying passenger and then freight cars between track in the District of Columbia and Virginia. The car float connected the B&O north of the Potomac River with the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railway, so the B&O continued to benefit from traffic with the Virginia Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad sold the Washington City, Virginia Midland & Great Southern Railway in 1881, to the Richmond & Danville Railway. The B&O had invested in the Valley Railroad west of the Blue Ridge, and no longer needed control over the track east of the mountains.1
"Timeline of Washington, D.C. Railroad History," Washington DC Chapter, National Railway Historical Society, http://www.dcnrhs.org/learn/washington-d-c-railroad-history/timeline-of-washington-d-c-railroad-history (last checked April 4, 2020)