the Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway was an electrified, interurban transit system between Richmond-Ashland from 1907-1938
Source: Library of Congress, Map of Richmond-Petersburg and adjacent territory showing lines of communication and points of historical interest (by Virginia Passenger and Power Company, 1907)
Frank Jay Gould acquired control over the electricity generation company in Richmond, and the streetcar businesses that relied upon that electricity. He purchased the privatel-owned Brook Turnpike in 1902.
The State Corporation Commission declined to issue a charter for a new railroad betwen Richmond and Fredericksburg. It interpreted the charter for the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad to include a guaranteed monopoly on the route. The Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals rejected that claim, however, and the Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway was incorporated in 1905.
the Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway was built north from the terminal at 814 West Broad Street along the Brook Turnpike
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Richmond, VA 1:31,680 topographic quadrangle (1939)
Gould consolidated his other businesses into Virginia Railway and Power in 1909. He planned to build an electricity-powered railroad between Norfolk and Fredericksburg, plus a branch line east to the unserved Northern Neck.
He chose to build a unique system, using voltage ten times higher (6,600 volts vs. 600 volts) than the electric trolley which was developed originally in Richmond. The higher voltage would enable his cards to run at higher speeds, as much as 90 miles per hour.
The railcars had a large transformer in the center. The technology required maintaining constant contact between the railcars and the overhead powerline, so a flat roadbed was essential. He built a concrete viaduct to cross a creek in Richmond, Bacon’s Quarter Branch, and built a suspended centenary system to eliminate sags in the line between poles.
Service between Richmond and Ashland started in 1907. Plans to build to Tappahannock were stopped by an economic recession, the Panic of 1907.
Train service stopped at the end of 1917. The company was sold at auction, and the buyers in 1919 renamed it the Richmond-Ashland Railway. The high-voltage system was replaced with a standard trolley electrical equipment, and the Richmond-Ashland Railway operated as a standard streetcar line cnnecting the town communities.
Competition from cars and then the Great Depression caused the company to stop operating in 1938. The equipment, including the overhead copper wires, was sold for scrap. The terminal building at 814 West Broad Street has survived, repurposed for a commercial business.1
"Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway," Pantograph: Exploring Rail Transit, August 11, 2009, http://pantographblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/richmond-and-chesapeake-bay-railway.html (last checked June 24, 2020)
golfers on Belmont Golf Course were allowed a second shot if they hit power lines using the Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway route
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online