Railroad History #26

The primary avenues of transportation in Virginia in the 1830s were the rivers and the ocean. The early railroads connected the coast with inland points, and one of these was the Louisa Railroad, chartered in 1836 to run from Taylorsville on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad (RF&P) just south of what is now Doswell, to points in Louisa County. At first the RF&P operated the railroad, but in 1847 the Louisa Railroad acquired its own rolling stock and took over its own affairs. By 1850 the railroad had been extended west to Charlottesville. That year it became the Virginia Central Railroad, and a year later over the protests of the RF&P it built its own line from Taylorsville to Richmond.

The original Blue Ridge Tunnel built by the Blue Ridge Railroad and used by the C&O until its replacement during World War II

West of Charlottesville lay the Blue Ridge Mountains, the crossing of which required a series of tunnels. The Commonwealth of Virginia, always keen to help with internal improvements, undertook construction of that portion of the line as the Blue Ridge Railroad and upon completion leased it to the Virginia Central (which later purchased it). Meanwhile, the Virginia Central leapfrogged its rails ahead to Clifton Forge. In 1853 the Commonwealth chartered the Covington & Ohio Railroad to connect the Virginia Central and the James River & Kanawha Canal at Covington with the Ohio River.