Nostalgia & History > Pennsylvania RR in Norfolk, VA

The latest issue of TRAINS has a couple of beautiful maps of the railroads in the Norfolk, VA area.....one for 1954, and one for 2012. The 1954 map show quite a bit of trackage labeled for the Pennsylvania RR. I always thought that the PRR only came as far south as Alexandria, VA. It looks like the PRR accessed Norfolk by carfloat from Cape Charles, so this got me to looking for other railroad maps of the area on the internet. A PRR map shows a line from Wilmington, DE to Cape Charles, MD. Was this an actual PRR line, or did they have trackage rights on some other railroad? Another map shows the PRR going as far south as Richmond, VA.....I'm assuming on trackage rights or haulage rights on the RF&P. Did the PRR at one time actually reach Richmond, Va? If so, did they also run into Norfolk from Richmond? Did PRR do a lot of business in Norfolk? What power was used there? Anybody got any photos that they can post?

As for trackage thru Delaware, It was all Pennsy to Cape Charles then carfloat to Norfolk. Pennsy never went as far southas Richmond Va. Perhaps via Trackage Rights over RF&P but no actual trackage that far south. They ran south to Winchester Va via Hagerstown Md and the Cumberland Vally Branch out of HBG/ENOLA Pa.As far as I can find out this is all the southern trackage that Pennsy owned or used. Ben

this yankee by birth and Virginian by choice, also known as a damn yankee, would like to remind you that cape charles is in VIRGINIA.

kpcmcpkva Wrote:
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> this yankee by birth and Virginian by choice, also
> known as a damn yankee, would like to remind you
> that cape charles is in VIRGINIA.

Thank you; I was going to say the same thing. Too many folks are unaware of their geography.

ClubCar Wrote:
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> kpcmcpkva Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > this yankee by birth and Virginian by choice,
> also
> > known as a damn yankee, would like to remind
> you
> > that cape charles is in VIRGINIA.
>
> Thank you; I was going to say the same thing. Too
> many folks are unaware of their geography.

Including the former governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, who once on national TV claimed Virginia bordered Delaware!

The PRR line through Delaware and down to the Cape Charles carfloat was usually referred to as the DELMARVA Line. There was through passenger service from New York to Cape Charles with connecting ferry service at least into the early 1960's.

Tim

The Little Creek (Norfolk VA) yard power was usually a PRR/PC Baldwin switcher or SW1. Transfer runs were made to connect with N&W and other local railroads. Lots of hi/wide loads took the car floats to avoid clearance problems around Washington and Baltimore.

The line was later known as the Virginia and Maryland, The Eastern Shore RR, and is now the Bay Coast Line. The lines used various Alco C420's, GP7/9 rebuilds and GP38's. Current power is a GP15-1 and some form of GP unit along with a doodlebug passenger car. The most interesting power was a pair of seldom used Army Alco MRS1's.

A large amount of historic or junk equipment has recently been scrapped.

Michael

Additionally, the line to Fredericksburg in Virginia that became part of the RF&P and is now CSXT was built by the PRR. In the 1872, after the aquisition of the Baltimore and Potomac RR and sole rights to use of the "Long Bridge" from Washington to Alexandria, the PRR controlled Alexandria and Washington RR and Alexandria and Fredericksburg RR built south to Quantico. From Fredericksburg, PRR traffic traveled over the RF&P to Richmond, where it was proposed to be put on the PRR controlled railroads of the Southern Railway Security Company, a holding company created to secure right of way from Richmond to Mobile, AL. The lines involved with the SRSC were the Richmond and Danville Ry, and Atlanta Air Line (now NS)and the Western RR of Alabama, and Mobile and Montgomery RR (now CSXT).

The SRSC venture was scrapped shortly after, sometime in 1873, and the PRR divested itself of the stocks it held, though it controlled the Richmond and Danville until 1880.

In 1890 the A&W and A&F were merged into the Washington Southern. The newly formed Richmond-Washington Company took over control of the RF&P from the ACL, and the PRR sold the Washington Southern to that interest, bringing the route from Richmond to Washington under one ownership, though the Richmond-Washington Company itself was owned equally by the PRR, B&O, ACL, SBD, SOU, and C&O.

Thanks everyone for all of the information. Sorry about putting Cape Charles in the wrong state. In looking at the PRR map again, I do see the Maryland - Virginia state line on the penninsula, but it is so short that I took it to be a railroad branch line! What is the mileage from Wilmington to Cape Charles?