The West Virginia Secondary is a rail line that connects

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, to

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...

, and beyond to the Gauley River valley, ending in

Enon, West Virginia Enon is an unincorporated community in Nicholas County, West Virginia, United States. Its post office is closed. The community most likely was named after Ænon, in Palestine, where John the Baptist baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, ...

. The line is about 250 miles long. It crosses the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

over the

Point Pleasant Rail Bridge The Point Pleasant Rail Bridge is a truss bridge that carries the West Virginia Secondary over the Ohio River between Gallia County, Ohio and Point Pleasant, West Virginia. At the present time, the bridge is being used by the Kanawha River ...

. The line was built in the late 19th century in segments by several railroads, most notably the Toledo and Ohio Central Railway and

Kanawha and Michigan Railroad Kanawha may refer to: Places * Kanawha River in West Virginia, joining the Ohio River at Point Pleasant ** Kanawha Falls, a waterfall on the Kanawha River ** Kanawha Falls, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in Fayette County near the water ...

. These were all acquired by the New York Central Railroad in 1910, and later passed to Penn Central and then

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

. In 1999 it became part of

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 ...

. The majority of the line was acquired by Watco to form the Kanawha River Railroad in 2016, with the exception of a 9-mile segment owned by

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. ...

in southeastern Ohio known as the Pomeroy Subdivision.

References

{{Rail-stub Norfolk Southern Railway lines Rail transportation in Ohio Rail transportation in West Virginia