Virginia

In the history of the steam locomotive Roanoke Machine Works played a key part. Take a look at this important economic center of the New South.

Roanoke Shops has been an indispensable part of the Roanoke Valley and the Magic City for more than 125 years. Founded in 1881 as an independent company, Roanoke Machine Works built new locomotives and cars for the Shenandoah Valley and Norfolk & Western Railroads. Situated between the picturesque Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, the facility caused an economic boom in the nearby village of Big Lick and the surrounding area. By 1891, Big Lick had become Roanoke and had emerged as one of the most important economic centers in the New South. Today, Roanoke Shops employs skilled craftsmen who provide the highest-quality overhauls and repairs to diesel locomotives. This book takes a look into its history, particularly at production during that exciting and enchanting era of the steam locomotive.

Experience the thriving industry and commerce of Richmond during the Gilded Age. The Richmond Locomotive Works was born out of the ashes of the evacuation fires at the end of the Civil War. The company grew, despite numerous financial and personnel difficulties, to become one of the city's single-largest employers, an industrial behemoth that provided livelihoods to thousands upon thousands of men over the course of its existence. Over a span of sixty years, the facility produced a myriad of industrial products, including thousands of steam locomotives that traversed rails throughout the United States and across the world. Historian Nathan Vernon Madison provides, for the first time since its closure in 1927, a thorough and complete history of this Richmond institution.

Norfolk Southern Railway's history in southeastern Virginia began in the mid-19th century when a young civil engineer named William Mahone designed an innovative 12-mile-long roadbed through the Great Dismal Swamp that is still in use today. Trees were felled and laid side by side at right angles beneath the swamp's surface, forming a corduroy road, with the roadbed built on top of the logs. The logs sank into the boggy swamp, where they were preserved. Nearly 170 years later, Mahone's corduroy design continues to serve as a major route for Norfolk Southern traffic, supporting millions of tons of freight each year as the railroad provides extensive service throughout Hampton Roads. One of the nation's largest Class 1 railroads, Norfolk Southern was created through the merger of Roanoke-based Norfolk & Western Railway and Washington, DC-based Southern Railway in June 1982.

The tracks of the Norfolk and Western Railway snaked through Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and the coalfields of West Virginia. For nearly 100 years, the Norfolk and Western brought freight, passengers, and economic vitality to large cities and rural mining towns. At each stop was the depot or station; some stations were large, architecturally ornate structures that represented the muscular energy and romantic era of this great steam railway with its famed J-class engines. In other places there were small wooden depots that depicted the hard-scrabble life of the mining communities, tucked amid steep mountain valleys that were indelibly shaped by the railway's presence. Today some of those structures remain, while many disappeared when the railway ceased passenger or other service. The Norfolk and Western eventually merged with the Southern Railway, and though the trains of the Norfolk Southern still run along those same lines, they simply pass by where they used to stop many years ago.

In the 1880s, New York railroad magnate Alexander Cassatt looked at a map of America's East Coast and decided that he could overcome a challenge of geography if he thought of a new railroad in a non-traditional way. North and South were now trading with each other postwar, and the two most
prominent coastal cities of those regions, New York and Norfolk, were less than 500 miles apart--except for one very large problem: at the end of a straight route down the Eastern Shore of Virginia lay the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, with more than 20 miles of open water to the rail yards
of Norfolk. Thus Cassatt created the New York, Philadelphia, & Norfolk Railroad, which ran overland from Philadelphia to Cape Charles, Virginia; at Cape Charles, the railroad became waterborne on barges and passenger
ferries that traveled the rough waters at the mouth of the bay. Now known as the Eastern Shore Railroad, since 1884, the operation has followed a path through history that has been no less dramatic than the rise and fall--and curves in the rightof-way--of American railroading during that time.

Discover the contribution and history of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad through pictures from the earliest days of building and development.

The Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad laid track from Alexandria through Fairfax County and into Loudoun County towards the coalfields of West Virginia. In 1900, the Southern Railway, which had taken over the line, extended the railroad into Bluemont on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Washington & Old Dominion Railway leased the Southern Railway's line in 1912, went into receivership in 1932, and was reorganized into the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad in 1935. The employees excavated the roadbed by hand, built stations and electric locomotives, reconfigured passenger cars, replaced diesel motors, and rebuilt bridges. Eventually, public roads and a lack of shipping and receiving industries forced the railroad into abandonment. Through old photographs, Washington & Old Dominion Railroad explores the efforts that went into building, operating, and maintaining the railroad whose right-of-way has now become the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority's Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park.

Take a tour of Virginia's scenic rail trails with author Joe Tennis as he explores restored train stations, discovers a railroad's lost island graveyard and crosses the commonwealth on its idyllic paths.

These classic rail lines of Virgina that were once only accessible to train engineers or a few lucky passengers can now be enjoyed by anyone looking for a scenic hike or bike ride. The trails highlight the natural beauty of Old Dominion, from the sunrise side of the Eastern Shore to the setting sun at the Cumberland gap, and each trail, with names like the Virginia Creeper and the Dick & Willie, has a personality and grandeur all its own.

Explore the geography of Rosslyn, Great Falls, Leesburg and Purcelville along the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad.

Washington & Old Dominion Railroad covered the railroad's corporate history, construction, and operation. The images within offer a look at the railroad's feed and grain business, railfan-type views of equipment and a visual record of methods used to maintain the right-of-way and place equipment back on the tracks. Additionally, this work offers a history of the conversion of the right-of-way into thevery popular Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park.

Learn about the history of mills and their place in the local economy. See how the Burro crane was a jack of all trades. Look under the hood and inside the cab to imagine what it was like to be an engineer on one of the railroad's Baldwin-Westinghouse electric freight locomotives.

In 1849, Virginia began a bold railroad expansion toward the Ohio River and its lucrative trade connections. The project's plan covered 423 miles and called for piercing two mountain chains with three railroads. The Blue Ridge Railroad was the shortest of these but crossed the most mountainous terrain. At times, hired slaves, who prepared the tracks, and Irish immigrants, who blasted the tunnels, faced challenges that seemed almost insurmountable. Many were killed by explosions and falling rock. Those deaths often resulted in labor strikes. The unrest slowed progress and haunted chief engineer Claudius Crozet for seven years. In this first full-length history of the Blue Ridge Railroad, award-winning author Mary E. Lyons uses a wealth of historical documents to describe construction on what Crozet called dangerous ground.

Told through the eyes of three Irish immigrant families who helped build it, discover the groundbreaking story of the  construction of the Blue Ridge Tunnel.

In one of the greatest engineering feats of his time, Claudius Crozet led the completion of Virginia's Blue Ridge Tunnel in 1858. Two centuries later, the National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark still proudly stands, but the stories and lives of those who built it are the true lasting triumph. Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Hunger poured into America resolute for something to call their own. They would persevere through life in overcrowded shanties and years of blasting through rock to see the tunnel to completion. Prolific author Mary E. Lyons follows three Irish families in their struggle to build Crozet's famed tunnel and their American dream.

During the second half of the 20th century, the railroads that operated in the Mid-Atlantic region offered a wide variety of subject matter for railroad enthusiasts and photographers to marvel at. A prime location to witness this activity was in Richmond—a railroad melting pot. As with any major city, the railroads played a significant role in Richmond's growth and development. As a result of being served by five different railroads, a labyrinth of railroad infrastructure emerged, including the Triple Crossing, a world-renowned landmark. Millions of travelers have passed through Broad Street and Main Street Stations on famous streamliner passenger trains such as the Silver Meteor and the George Washington. Images of Rail: Richmond Railroads documents the past 60 years of railroading in the Capital City, which has seen drastic changes as a result of corporate mergers, urban development, and technological advances.