Petersburg Union Station is a former train station in Petersburg, Virginia. It was built in 1909–1910 for the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

, and was later used by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Amtrak.

History

The Petersburg Railroad (opened 1833) and Richmond and Petersburg Railroad (opened 1838) ran north–south on a winding route through Petersburg. The two lines merged in 1898 and became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) in 1900. The ACL used a station located at Washington Street and Union Street. The east–west Southside Railroad, predecessor of the

(N&W), opened in the early 1850s. It used a still-extant station at River Street and Rock Street. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) opened its own north–south line through Petersburg in 1900, crossing the

Appomattox River The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in central and eastern Virginia in the United ...

on a high bridge. The SAL had a passenger station at Dunlop Street for through trains, and terminating passenger and freight stations at Market Street on a spur line. The SAL never used Union Station; the Dunlop Street station was replaced with a brick station near Bluefield Street in 1944. In 1909–10, the N&W constructed Union Station at the junction with the ACL near Third Street. It allowed riders to transfer between the Norfolk– Cincinnati trains - the '' Cavalier,'' '' Pocahontas'' and ''

Powhatan Arrow The ''Powhatan Arrow'' was one of the named passenger trains of the Norfolk and Western. Its route ran from Norfolk, Virginia, to Cincinnati, Ohio. Train 25 left Norfolk at 7:00 am,N&W October 27, 1957 Timetable, p. 14 and made the 565 mile ru ...

'' - and ACL Florida–New York trains. The ACL moved to a new station in Ettrick on a western bypass route in 1955, leaving only the N&W at Union Station. When Amtrak took over intercity passenger service on May 1, 1971, east–west service on the N&W was discontinued, while north–south service continued to use the Ettrick station. From 1975 to 1977, Amtrak operated the Norfolk-Cincinnati '' Mountaineer'', with a stop at Union Station The '' Hilltopper'', which replaced the ''Mountaineer'' and ran until 1979, used a station located slightly to the west at Fleet Street instead. Union Station is part of the Petersburg Old Town Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. an
''Accompanying photo''
an
''Accompanying map''

References

External links

Transportation in Petersburg, Virginia Railway stations in the United States opened in 1910 Railway stations closed in 1971

Petersburg Petersburg, or Petersburgh, may refer to: Places Australia *Petersburg, former name of Peterborough, South Australia Canada * Petersburg, Ontario Russia *Saint Petersburg, sometimes referred to as Petersburg United States *Peterborg, U.S. Virg ...

Former Amtrak stations in Virginia Railway stations in the United States opened in 1975 Railway stations closed in 1977 Former Norfolk and Western Railway stations

Buildings and structures in Petersburg, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Petersburg, Virginia Historic district contributing properties in Virginia Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia {{Virginia-railstation-stub