The Washington District is a

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

line in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

that connects

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

and Lynchburg. Most of the line was originally built from 1850 to 1860 by the

Orange and Alexandria Railroad The Orange and Alexandria Railroad (O&A) was a railroad in Virginia, United States. Chartered in 1848, it eventually extended from Alexandria to Gordonsville, with another section from Charlottesville to Lynchburg. The road played a crucial rol ...

, with a small portion in the center opened in 1880 as the Charlottesville and Rapidan Railroad. Today, the line is mainly used for freight service, but

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''Crescent'', ''Cardinal'' and ''Northeast Regional'' passenger services use all or part of the line, and the

Virginia Railway Express Virginia Railway Express (VRE) is a commuter rail service that connects outlying small cities of Northern Virginia to Union Station in Washington, D.C. It operates two lines which run during weekday rush hour only: the Fredericksburg Line from ...

Manassas Line The Manassas Line is a Virginia Railway Express commuter line that extends from Washington, D.C. to Bristow, Virginia. The first of VRE's two lines, with service beginning on June 22, 1992, the line operates on tracks owned by CSX Transportatio ...

commuter service uses the northernmost portion of the line.

Route

The line begins at the AF Tower in

, where it splits from the

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

RF&P Subdivision The RF&P Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation. It runs from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia, over lines previously owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. ...

. It connects to the B-Line near Manassas. At

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, the

Buckingham Branch Railroad Buckingham Branch Railroad is a Class III railroad, Class III short-line railroad operating over 275 miles (443 km) of historic and strategic trackage in Central Virginia. Sharing overhead traffic with CSX and Amtrak, the company's headqu ...

's Washington Subdivision splits and forms a loop that rejoins the Washington District at Charlottesville. It crosses the CSX

James River Subdivision The Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was built along the James River (Virginia), James River along the route of the James River and Kanawha Canal from Richmond, Virginia, Richmond on the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, Fall Line at the head of navigati ...

, and then ends at Lynchburg, becoming the NS

Danville District Danville or Dansville may refer to: ;Canada * Danville, Quebec ;United States * Danville, Alabama * Danville, Arkansas *Danville, California * Danville, Georgia *Danville, Illinois *Danville, Indiana * Danville, Iowa * Danville, Kansas * Danville, ...

. The line crosses the Rappahannock, Rapidan, South Fork Rivanna, Tye, and James Rivers. The Rivermont Tunnel is next to the James River crossing.

History

Map showing the Orange and Alexandria Railroad

The line was originally constructed by the

. The portion north of Orange was constructed from 1850 to 1854. The extension south to Lynchburg was completed in 1860, with a short section in between that was part of the

Virginia Central Railroad The Virginia Central Railroad was an early railroad in the U.S. state of Virginia that operated between 1850 and 1868 from Richmond westward for to Covington. Chartered in 1836 as the Louisa Railroad by the Virginia General Assembly, the railr ...

. After the Civil War, the company came under the control of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

. By 1881, several mergers had made it part of the

Virginia Midland Railway Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

, which in 1886 was leased to the

Richmond and Danville Railroad The Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) Company was a railroad that operated independently from 1847 until 1894, first in the U.S. state of Virginia, and later on of track in nine states. Chartered on March 9, 1847, the railroad completed its ...

. Both were merged into the Southern Railway in 1894, forming part of its main line. The Southern Railway later acquired the Charlottesville and Rapidan Railroad, which had opened in 1880, bypassing the former Virginia Central Railroad segment (which is now the

's Washington Subdivision). The Southern Railway merged into Norfolk Southern in 1982.

Service

The line is part of Norfolk Southern's Piedmont Division. It is mainly used for freight service. Major customers include a

Cargill Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...

grain elevator in Culpeper. A former customer, the

Pepco The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American utility company that supplies electric power to the city of Washington, D.C. and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It is owned by Exelon. The company's current trademarked slogan i ...

Generating Facility, closed in 2012. Other customers include Robinson Terminal in Springfield Virginia, Vulcan Rock Facility in Springfield Virginia, Washington Gas in Springfield Virginia, Virginia Paving Alexandria Virginia, NS Ethanol Transflow Facility, Alexandria Virginia and Vulcan Rock Quarry, Casanova Virginia (Casanova Branch).

uses the line for various trains. Its ''Crescent'' uses the entire line as part of its

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-to-

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

service. The ''Cardinal'' uses the portion from Alexandria to Orange as part of its New York-to-

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

service. Since 2009, its ''Northeast Regional'' service uses the portion of the line to Lynchburg. The

uses the northernmost portion of the line from Alexandria to the Broad Run station just past Manassas.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Piedmont Division timetables and maps
Norfolk Southern Railway lines Rail infrastructure in Virginia Southern Railway (U.S.)