early N&W passenger operations into Washington, DC

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Wed Nov 9 11:41:27 EST 2011


Jim:

I am very much aware of the plans which were set forth and have seen
that dotted line on the map which never got much further than the map
with regards to construction, although I think some land acquisitions
and a little bit of clearing work may have been done.

The fact that the Richmond & Danville gobbled up the Round Hill Branch
(in 1886), of the Washington, Ohio & Western (much later to become the
Washington & Old Dominion RR in 1912), was due their very real fear
that the W.O.W. could have connected up with the Shenandoah Valley RR
near Berryville. We know it never happened and neither did the other
occur although land was acquired south of Front Royal with that idea
in mind around 1890.

I'm talking about some sort of trackage rights arrangement with N&W
motive power coming into DC. I have seen those references without a
lot of details and think the arrangement was via Shenandoah Junction.
That may explain Gordon Hamilton's Official Railway Guide for 1893
reference as it could just have been a few first class cars on very
specific trains being interchanged.

Thanks for observing the hoped for plans.

Bob


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