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The Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad was organized in 1833 (as the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad) to extend from the area of the rapids of the
Roanoke River The Roanoke River ( ) runs long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the Ap ...
at its
fall line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is typically prominent where rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the coa ...
near
Weldon, North Carolina Weldon is a town in Halifax County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,655 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina Micropolitan Statistical Area. History In 1752, Daniel Weldon purchased 1,273 acre ...
to Portsmouth, Virginia, across the Elizabeth River from
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
on the harbor of Hampton Roads.


History

In the early 19th century, competition was fierce among Virginia's port cities to be the point where export products such as tobacco could be transferred to ocean-going and coast-wise shipping. Canals, turnpikes and railroads became important conduits in the
antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ...
period in Virginia. The original goal of the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad was to provide a link for shipments of goods originating on the Roanoke River and its
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
system from points west to reach port facilities in the
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
area on the harbor of Hampton Roads. For such traffic, Norfolk and Portsmouth were fiercely competitive with Petersburg, which had access to the navigable portion of the James River at City Point via about 8 miles of the Appomattox River below its fall line, and was also planning rail service from its south and west. The new line, built in
gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, ...
was first completed in 1835. Some of the intermediate points in Virginia were Boykins, Franklin, Carrsville, and Suffolk. Lumber was the largest commodity originating along the line, and the facilities of the Camp Company's lumber and paper mill operations in Franklin were located there due to the new railroad. The Seaboard and Roanoke was the first railroad to reach the Norfolk area, which eventually became a busy point for many railroads. However, it was to be more than 20 years before the
Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad The Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad was built between Norfolk and Petersburg, Virginia and was completed by 1858. The line was of track gauge. It played a role on the American Civil War (1861–1865), and became part of the Atlantic, Mississip ...
, a predecessor of the Norfolk and Western Railway built by
William Mahone William Mahone (December 1, 1826October 8, 1895) was an American civil engineer, railroad executive, Confederate States Army general, and Virginia politician. As a young man, Mahone was prominent in the building of Virginia's roads and railroa ...
, was completed. Through several financial reorganizations, and refinancing by the
Virginia Board of Public Works The Virginia Board of Public Works was a governmental agency which oversaw and helped finance the development of Virginia's transportation-related internal improvements during the 19th century. In that era, it was customary to invest public funds ...
in 1838, it was variously known as the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad and the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad.


1837 Head-on collision and Derailment

On August 11, 1837 the first head-on railroad collision to result in passenger fatalities in the United States occurred near Suffolk when an eastbound lumber train coming down a grade at speed rounded a sharp curve and smacked into the morning passenger train from Portsmouth, Virginia. The first three of thirteen stagecoach-style cars were smashed, killing three daughters of the prominent Ely family and injuring dozens of the 200 on board. They were returning from a steamboat cruise when the accident happened. An engraving depicting the moment of impact was published in Howland's "Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents" in 1840. On December 12 of the same year an eastbound engine of the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad pulling 3 passenger cars and 9 lumber cars loaded with cotton struck an upturned end of a split metal rail 2 miles west of the Nottoway River near the present day village of Handsom in Southampton County. The resulting derailment killed a Miss Blow and a Miss Rochelle from Southampton and injured several others including Capt. James D. Bryant whose legs were broken, Col. Nathaniel Rochelle, a Mr. Blow and Miss King and Miss Simmons also of Southampton. Senator William C. Preston of South Carolina who was on board escaped injury.


American Civil War

One of the Seaboard and Roanoke's builders from the mid-1830s' was
Walter Gwynn Walter Gwynn (February 22, 1802 – February 6, 1882 ) was an American civil engineer and soldier who became a Virginia Provisional Army general and North Carolina militia brigadier general in the early days of the American Civil War in 186 ...
, who, during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, became a
Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
General assigned to take charge of the defenses of Norfolk, which were held by the southern troops for about a year in 1861–62. Early in that period, fellow railroader William Mahone used his Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and ruse tactics to feign massive arrivals of additional
Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
troops at Norfolk. Without a single shot fired, he successfully tricked the small detachment of troops holding the Gosport Shipyard (now
Norfolk Navy Yard The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard and abbreviated as NNSY, is a U.S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling and repairing the Navy's ships. It is the oldest and largest industrial facility tha ...
) into abandoning it for the safety of Union-held
Fort Monroe Fort Monroe, managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service as the Fort Monroe National Monument, and the City of Hampton, is a former military installation in Hampton, Virgi ...
across the harbor.


Mergers: SAL, SCL, CSX

In the 1880s, the Seaboard and Roanoke became part of the
Seaboard Air Line Railway The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...
system, which was extended through Petersburg to reach Richmond to the north and covered the southeastern states to reach
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. In 1967, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad merged with its arch-rival, the Atlantic Coast Line railroad to form
Seaboard Coast Line The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...
Industries (SCL). SCL merged with the
Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated unde ...
in 1980, to form CSX Transportation, which is currently one of seven major
Class 1 railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$5 ...
s operating in North America in the 21st century. Most of the line remains in service today, which is now CSX's
Portsmouth Subdivision The Portsmouth Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Virginia and North Carolina. The line connects CSX's network with the port city of Portsmouth, Virginia. The Portsmouth Subdivision was historically operated by the Seab ...
.


Future

A portion of the line in the cities of Suffolk and western Chesapeake has been included in studies by the
Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. According to its web site, the state agency's mission is "to improve the mobility of people and goods while expandin ...
of the feasibility of Richmond-South Hampton Roads High Speed Passenger Rail service. A suburban Norfolk-area station has been projected to be located near
Bowers Hill Bower's Hill is a community located in the independent city of Chesapeake, Virginia (formerly Norfolk County, Virginia, Norfolk County) in the United States. It is located in the South Hampton Roads region at the northeastern edge of the Great Di ...
in Chesapeake.


Suffolk Passenger Station

The circa-188
Seaboard Passenger Station
at Suffolk, Virginia was shared with the coal hauling
Virginian Railway The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads. Histor ...
when it was built adjacently in the early 20th century. Featuring a brick octagonal cupola for its telegraph operators, the station was restored and now houses a railroad museum, operating model trains based upon of Suffolk around 1907, and a gift shop.


Historic Station listing


References


External links


''Confederate Railroads'' web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seaboard Roanoke Railroad Defunct Virginia railroads Predecessors of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Railway companies established in 1846 Railway companies disestablished in 1911 Defunct Georgia (U.S. state) railroads Defunct North Carolina railroads Defunct South Carolina railroads 4 ft 8 in gauge railways in the United States 1846 establishments in Virginia American companies established in 1846