Eastern Railroad Discussion > Rail activity in Williamsburg, VA

Our son who is currently in Navy "A" school has received verbal orders that his first duty station will be in Williamsburg, VA.

We are excited for him because of all the history that was made in the area.

Since he is a railfan, what kind of railfan activities can he doing in the area? He has a handheld scanner and camera and during his off duty time, I am sure that he would like to go out and watch trains.

Thanks in advance for any information.

Pat Worsham
Austin, TX

CSX's ex. C&O peninsula sub runs right thru Williamsburg. They run all coal and empty trains and some Amtrak trains during the day. Probably can expect a dozen trains or so a day.

Stay away from the docks down at Newport News as far as i know this is restricted area down there.

Williamsburg is single track with double track to both the east and west. Amtrak offers several runs with the typical GE and 5-7 Amfleet cars.

Typical CSX power is the various GE widenose things and sometimes EMD widenoses, with a few slug sets now and then. Every once and a while a standard cab EMD shows up.

A merchandise train leaves Newport News in the afternoon, however the time varies with pickup and set outs. An eastbound merchandise train comes in really early morning.

Rock trains serve several asphalt/concrete plants in the area and do not seem to follow a schedule. Rock is loaded west of Richmond.

A local comes west from Newport News and returns when work is finished.

A public road goes into the coal piers downtown, and I-664 offers fine morning views of the facilities. One has GE centercabs the other SW1500's.

Ft Eustis has a museum with rail displays and a minimally active railroad.

There are three steam engines at a local theme park. The adjacent brewery is served by a local and often has CSX power nearby. It has a track mobile.

Typically a green signal means "something is coming"; signals at crossovers/switches are continually illuminated red; seeing a red lineside signal usually indicates something is coming toward you.

There are a few really nice photo locations and a lot of poor ones.

Michael
Williamsburg

This isn't contributing to the information in this thread, but this thread's mere existence brings back memories of one of my earliest bits of away-from-home railfanning that I can't resist relating. My seventh-grade class trip was to Colonial Williamsburg, and the C&O tracks run right outside the museum. I heard quite a few trains but didn't really have the opportunity to do any trainwatching (this was long before I started taking train pictures). On the way out of town back toward New York, though, we stopped at a pottery factory in Lightfoot, Va., apparently so the chaperones could go shopping -- I certainly didn't have any money for pottery. I waited on the steps outside the factory store and was rewarded in short order by an empty westbound hopper train scream by with, if memory serves, had a solid trio of Chessie units for power.

I don't remember a whole lot of specifics about Colonial Williamsburg, but I sure remember that train!

Williamsburg, while interesting, is not especially "hot" as RRing goes. Richmond is a relatively short, inexpensive (at least it was when I was stationed in Norfolk) Amtrak ride away, where he'll be albe to see a greater variety of Chessie freights and Amtrak action. Richmond's main drawback is the remote location of the Amtrak station.

A favorite Friday afternoon/evening activity of mine in those good old Navy days: Ride the "Friday only" afternoon northbound Amtrak (assuming it's still on the schedule) to Richmond, watch whatever freights go through, plus I'd usually get at least one of Amtrak's Florida trains, and the main event, being the southbound Auto Train, then ride the evening Tidewater/Colonial back to Williamsburg. This will be a very easy trip for him. Going to and from Norfolk involved the relatively unpleasant bus segment south of Newport News, but it also afforded views of Newport News Shipbuilding, the coal terminal, and a ride across the bridge/tunnel, so it was at least bearable.

Side note: The Friday afternoon bus made a pickup at the Naval base in Norfolk, making it very convenient for servicemen (didn't have to ride the transit bus downtown to catch the Amtrak bus that way). Being the dedicated railfan/Amtrak watcher that I was, I'd occasionally even walk over to the Navy Exchange just to watch the Truway bus make its stop!

Andy Brown

Will he be at Cheathem Annex or Yorktown Naval Weapons Station? Yorktown used to bring ammo to the piers by train for ship's weapons onloads. We stopped there several times while I was on a cruiser out of Norfolk. If he has a car, Lamberts Point is pretty decent and there are several places to park along 21st street in Norfolk. The area is called Ghent. Also may be able to catch the car float action over at NAB Little Creek. Getting on base with a DOD sticker helps out.

Ahhhhh...

Remembering my old Coastie days. "A" school in Yorktown, weekends in VAB. That was the life.