Lexington VA C&O Railroad Branch?

Short History:

In 1883 the Richmond & Allegheny which ran from Richmond to Clifton Forge VA constructed a branch line running from Buchannan to Lexington VA where it met the B&O's Valley RR line.  The Valley RR was supposed to build a line from Harrisonburg VA to what is today the N&W at Salem, but stopped in 1883 when it reached Lexington.  The R&A was later taken over by the C&O.  In 1942 the B&O gave up its Valley line and the portion from Lexington to Staunton VA was abandoned.   I believe at some point the C&O and N&W agreed to share parts of the N&W's track running from Buena Vista to Buchanan and parts of the C&O were abandoned.  In the 1970s a hurricane destroyed the bridge into Lexington and the C&O abandoned the line from Buena Vista to that point.

BTW the Richmond and Allegheny was constructed on the tow path of the old James & Kanawha Canal from Richmond to Buchanan.  The branch line to Lexington was on the tow path of a branch canal part of which is now the Chessie Nature Trail.

Funny, I was just talking to one of friends yesterday about the old B&O line down the Valley. His father was an engineer on the Chesapeake Western and was on the work train that took up the rail from Lexington to Staunton after the CW purchased the old B&O line.

If you have an interest and want to learn more, see if you can find a copy of "Iron Horses in the Valley" by John Hildebrand. It tells how the line of the Valley RR of Va was built and includes maps showing the old RoW into Salem, Va. Along with portions of the RoW being clearly visable along parts of I-81 southbound, there are still some bridge structures standing in Roanoke County.

The R&A had a line that ran (not from Buchanan) from Balcony Falls (read Glasgow, Va.) to Lexington, Va. via Loch Laird & Buena Vista, Va. along (if you are standing in Glasgow) the east bank of (due to a name change) what is now called the Maury River. The N&W went up the west bank of the Maury. The two lines crossed at Loch Laird (south end of Buena Vista). After wondering for many years about how the R&A got from Balcony Falls to Loch Laird, I finally found the R&A RoW clearly marked in a book that mapped the canal system from Balcony Falls to Lexington.

I think that after some washouts from floods, trackage rights were obtained for the C&O to run from Glasgow to Loch Laird on the N&W. C&O crews manned their trains.

Couple of corrections:

1. Jim is correct that the line to Lexington left the R&A/C&O at Balcony Falls rather than slightly west at Buchanan.  Buchanan was where the Valley RR's line would have crossed the main line of the R&A if the VRR had been completed to Salem.

2. 1883 was when the B&O reached Lexington.  The R&A got there slightly earlier.

In my defense I typed my response off the top of my head at 5am. 

So all of these lines were long gone even before deregulation?

Along with portions of the RoW being clearly visable along parts of I-81 southbound, there are still some bridge structures standing in Roanoke County.

There are several stone bridges viewable in Augusta County. Most impressive is the stone bridge across Folly Mills creek near Mint Spring, VA. It run runs parallel to I81. Part I81 was actually built on the the right of way. The contractors used the right of way for access to a number of points during construction. One bridge abutment actually sits where the right of way passes. I recall that a jack hammer was used to break thru the old ballast to built the form to pour the base.

There is a culvert located just north of Greenville on the west side of Rt 11 and there is also the remains of a wooden trestle in Greenville.

If one looks closely, you can see bits and pieces of road way all along Rts 11 and I81.

 Last time I was in Lexington,Va the old depot was still standing.

 Kinda odd to see it setting on a dead end street,but you can still tell that a roadbed once ran thru the area.

 My late father talked as a kid about going thru there with his father when visiting family in Charlottesville ,Va and passing by the street that bears our last name McLaughlin .It's a couple of streets up from the depot.

  A year before my dad passed my dad and I attended a family reunion in Charlottesville,Va. We also visited McLaughlin Street and the depot just like my dad and Granddaa had done many years before