Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad
The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad ( RFP or RF&P for short ) was an American railroad company that connected Richmond , Virginia with Washington, DC . On the main route are Alexandria , Quantico , Fredericksburg , Milford and Ashland . In Richmond, the RFP is connected to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Air Line Railroad , in Alexandria and Union Station in Washington, DC with the Pennsylvania Railroad , the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Southern Railway . There was also a connection to the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad in Potomac Yards .
The RF&P was a so-called Bridge Line with the slogan Linking North and South . The term bridge line means that most of the freight was transported between other railway companies and was not produced or accepted directly on the route.
Today the routes belong to the former RF&P of CSX Transportation and are used for passenger services by Amtrak and Virginia Express Railway .
history
In 1836 the first section of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad between Richmond and Hazel Run was opened. In 1837 the section to Fredericksburg followed, and on September 30, 1842 the line to the Potomac River at Aquia Creek was completed. With the opening of a route extension to the north, which branched off at Brooke to Quantico, the old route to Aquia Creek soon became a branch route.
At the other end of the route, the Alexandria and Washington Railroad opened a route from the southern end of the Long Bridge over the Potomac River to Alexandria in 1857 . When this company went bankrupt in 1887 , it was reopened in the same year as the Alexandria and Washington Railway as a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). In 1873 the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad established a connection to Washington, DC with its branch line over the Long Bridge, which was also used by the A&W.
The Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad , also a subsidiary of the PRR, established an important connection from these routes in Alexandria to Quantico in 1872. There it was connected to the RF&P by the Potomac Railroad, which is only 2.7 kilometers long . Between 1877 and 1890 this short stretch was rented to RF&P. In the meantime operated by other railway companies, the route from Washington to Fredericksburg was integrated into the R&FP as part of the Washington Southern Railway in 1920.
In 1901 the Richmond-Washington Company was founded as a holding company, which became the owner of the entire fleet of the two railway companies (RF&P and Washington Southern). The Pennsylvania Railroad , the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad , the Southern Railway , the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad were equally involved in this parent company . Due to the various mergers, the CSX with 80 percent and Norfolk Southern Railway with 20 percent were the sole owners of the company. In 1991, the CSX finally acquired the entire line of RF&P. The rest of the property went to the State of Virginia.
literature
- George H. Drury : The Historical Guide to North American Railroads . 2nd Edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5 .
- Robert G. Lewis : The Handbook of American Railroads . Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, New York, NY 1956.
- Larence R. Duffee: Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad . In: William D. Middleton , George M. Smerk, Roberta L. Diehl (Eds.): Encyclopedia of North American Railroads . Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN 2007, ISBN 978-0-253-34916-3 .