A Short Trip by Rail

A Short Trip by Rail

In the 19th century, traveling by road in the western part of Virginia meant walking, taking the stagecoach, or riding a horse. Harrisonburg and Rockingham County was primarily rural and agricultural, and the roads were, as described by C. G. Price, “bottomless mud when it rained, impassable when it snowed and in dry weather [were] obscured by billowing clouds of dust.” [1] Local merchants went to major cities as infrequently as possible—often only twice a year.

Politics and economics controlled the railroads prior to the Civil War. Winchester was connected to the B&O by the mid-1830s and Staunton was added as a stop on the Virginia Central (later Chesapeake & Ohio) in 1854. Port Republic and Shenandoah had major iron mines, furnaces and foundries, as well as mills. The railroad followed what is now Rt. 340 from Front Royal to Staunton as early as 1834. Crossing the Blue Ridge was also a major factor. As Ed King pointed out: “A modern locomotive that can pull 1,000 tons on a flat grade can pull only 200 tons on a 0.5% grade.” [2] Competition for a railroad between Charlottesville and Harrisonburg ended with the Blue Ridge, although by the late 1800s, the train followed Rt. 33 and stopped in Elkton.

While the Civil War caused massive damage to existing rails and caused a break in construction, Harrisonburg residents began clamoring for railroad connections as early as 1866. As the northern “carpetbaggers” had no side in the pre-war politics, they began the construction of a railroad from Baltimore to Harrisonburg. The first railroad to come to Harrisonburg opened in 1868 as part of the Manassas Gap Railroad and the inaugural train was pulled by an engine named Shenandoah.
Residents, however, were still unsatisfied—this line provided transportation to Manassas, Orange and Alexandria but did not traverse along the Valley. Robert E. Lee lent his voice to an effort to build such a railroad, the Valley Rail Road Company. While this line was never fully constructed, it paved the way for the Chesapeake & Western Railroad, incorporated in 1895. [3] To this day, there is still no direct link between Harrisonburg and Staunton.

For more information on trains in the valley, please attend our program on November 6th at 7pm at the Main Branch of the library in downtown Harrisonburg. Bob Cohen will present his new book, A Trip by Rail in the Shenandoah Valley on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Southern Railway (2013). Mr. Cohen will have copies of his book available purchase and signing. He invites the public to bring train memorabilia to share.

For more information, contact Cheryl Metz @ cmetz@mrlib.org.


By Cheryl Metz and Katie Martin

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[1] Price, Charles G. The Crooked & Weedy. Waynesville: Don Mills, 1992.

[2] King, Ed. “Getting Them Up the Grade the Norfolk and Western Way.”  Trains Magazine, April 2004, p. 67.

[3] Price , Chapter 2.

Mr. Hotchkiss Rambles Part 3

Read Part 1 HERE

Read Part 2 HERE

Part 3

We saw a thunder storm below us, in the Valley, that evening, and looked over the fog, that wound through every nook in the morning. The sun rises here long before it does in the valley. The good housewife assured us that the frosts were often visible below when they had none, and the early vegetables were rarely injured by the “Spring frosts.” What charming summer homes might be found in these elevated regions for the dwellers in the cities and the lowlands of the South; the pure, dry atmosphere, invigorating with its ever breath; the sparkling, lively water; the glorious scenery; the abundance of sport for the angler, the hunter, and the student of nature; the soil, that under the hand of industry, would yield abundantly; and, above all, its nearness to the great lines of travel, (as it is not more than 15 or 20 miles to the Manassas Gap Railroad,) make this an inviting region to those looking for country summer houses. 

Mr. Hotchkiss Rambles Part 2

Read Part 1 HERE

Part 2

It was arranged to start a deer, on the Pendleton mountain the next morning, for the benefit of my friend R__, as “no flocks that range the valley free, to slaughter I condemn,” so I took no part in the matter. We were up betimes, and after breakfast rode up to the mountain top, while two boys of our host (manly little fellows, by the way) went to start up the game with a dog. Our hunters waited at the stands for some time, but no deer came to hand, so said good morning to our host and his boys, and followed our guide along the top of the mountain. In passing, I might as well say that we went to look over the domain known as the Waterman Survey,[i] occupying nearly all the north-western end of Rockingham County, and formerly containing 93,000 acres of land, as surveyed by Alexander Herring, in 1795, he being county surveyor at that time. We can form an idea of the size of such a body of land, when we state that the bounding lines stretch about 60 miles, one of them being eleven miles long, in one direction. We found a good bridge path along the top of the mountain, and had a very fine view of the valleys of Pendleton; across the chains of the Alleghenies the view is bounded by Cheat mountain in the distance.

Mr. Hotchkiss Rambles Part 1

On Tuesday, August 17, 1858, Jedediah Hotchkiss,[i] a skilled draftsman and geologist on assignment for the Rockingham Register, set out on a tour the northwestern section of Rockingham County. The Hotchkiss letter to the newspaper (and another [ii]) that follows was also appended to The Waterman Lands brochure, published in 1859 by W. H. Ruffner. This brochure advertised the sale of “75,000 acres of Mountain Land in Virginia with an Essay on the Best Uses of Virginia Mountain Land.” Many of the parties cited in this pamphlet and the letters are worthy of a dissertation.