the Buckingham Branch now operates the Virginia Southern shortline between Burkeville and Clarksville
Source: Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Virginia State Railroad Map (2012)
the Buckingham Branch now operates the Virginia Southern shortline between Burkeville and Clarksville
Source: Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Virginia State Railroad Map (2012)
The modern Virginia Southern Railroad is a "shortline" linking Burkeville and Clarksville with a long corporate history. Three railroads preceded today's operating railroad.
Before the Civil War, the Roanoke Valley Railroad was built from Clarksville south to connect with the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad at Manson (Ridgeway), North Carolina. Links to other railroads on the eastern end of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad allowed freight and passengers to travel on to Petersburg, Portsmouth, and Wilmington Its rails and equipment were removed during the conflict and used to help build the Piedmont Railroad.
Confederate officials determined that the Piedmont Railroad was a higher priority. It closed the gap between Greensboro-Danville and created an inland supply route. Confederate officials could have chosen to extend the Roanoke Raiload and close the gap between Clarksville-Keysville, but moving supplies from the Piedmont region of North Carolina to the Army of Northern Virginia via that route would have been less efficient. That same geography always affected the demand for the route now used by the Virginia Southern Railroad.
After the Civil War, Clarksville was reconnected to the North Carolina railroad network by a new railroad using a slightly different route. The Oxford and Clarksville Railroad was built between Clarksville and Oxford, North Carolina, rather than Manson (Ridgeway). That reconnected Clarksville, a major tobacco sales center on the Roanoke River, with the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad.
the Oxford and Clarksville Railroad (red) linked to the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad at Oxford, North Carolina after the Civil War
Source: Library of Congress, Map of the Seaboard & Raleigh Railroad and its connections. (1874)
In 1881, Clarksville finally got a railroad running north of town. The Richmond and Mecklenburg Railroad was built north from Clarksville to Keysville. It connected there to the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which had gained control of the Richmond and Mecklenburg Railroad in 1881.
the Richmond and Mecklenburg Railroad linked Keysville to Clarksville
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
Without the Richmond and Mecklenburg Railroad, farmers would have been required to transport their products to Petersburg by wagon. Without the Oxford and Clarksville Railroad, farmers would have been required to use batteaux to float their products downstream via the Roanoke River to other railroads at Gaston or Weldon.
By 1891, the Atlantic & Danville Railroad also crossed through Clarksville. That provided a direct route to Portsmouth.
The Southern Railway leased the Atlantic and Danville Railway in 1899, then acquired the Richmond and Mecklenburg and Oxford and Clarksville railroads in 1900.
After the merger between the Southern Railway and the Norfolk and Western Railroad in 1982 to create the Norfolk Southern Railroad, the track between Oxford and Keysville became surplus. In addition, the new Norfolk Southern did not need the track northeast of Keysville to Burkeville. That stretch had been built originally as part of the Richmond and Danville Railroad in the 1850's.1
The Norfolk Southern leased the 59 miles of unneeded track between Burkeville and Clarksville to RailTex in 1988. RailTex started the Class III shortline railroad known as the Virginia Southern Railroad, using routes established originally by the Richmond and Mecklenburg and the Richmond and Danville railroads. (NOTE: The Virginia Southern Railroad established in 1988 had no relationship with an earlier railroad using the same name that had been created in 1902. The first Virginia Southern Railroad extended the Marion and Rye Valley Railway in Smyth County 10 miles to a new lumber mill in Grayson County. That corporation was dissolved in 1932.)
the railroad bridge crosses Buggs Island Lake/Kerr Reservoir upstream of two highway bridges at Clarksville
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
The new Virginia Southern Railroad was the first spinoff of low-traffic branch lines in the Norfolk Southern's efforts to create the Thoroughbred Shortline Program. The track is still owned by the Norfolk Southern, but is leased to other railroads willing to operate as a "feeder" line to increase traffic on the Norfolk Southern's mainline at Burkeville.
The RailTex conglomerate of shortline railroads was acquired by RailAmerica in 2000. The Buckingham Branch acquired the lease from Norfolk Southern in 2009.2
The 19 miles of the shortline that RailTex formerly used to connect with Oxford, North Carolina, has not been active since the 1980's. Norfolk Southern has not abandoned the line, so there is no opportunity yet to create a 15-mile hiking trail on the right-of-way.3
the Virginia Southern still crosses Buggs Island Lake/Kerr Reservoir, but now ends at Clarksville
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
maintained track of the Virginia Southern Division of the Buckingham Branch Railroad, looking north towards Clarksville in 2022