the Virginia Southern still crosses Buggs Island Lake/Kerr Reservoir, but now ends at Clarksville
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
It was built originally in the 1870's by the Richmond, Dancille and Piedmont Railroad, as a link between the capital cities of Virginia and North Carolina. In railroad mergers and reorganizations, it bacame part of the Richmond and Danville, Southern, and finally the Norfolk Southern rairoads.
The Norfolk Southern leased the branch line to RailTex in 1988. That conglomerate of shortline railroads was aquired by RailAmerica in 2000. The Buckingham Branch acquired the lease from Norfolk Southern in 2009.1
The Buckingham Branch operates on 59 miles of track south of Burkeville. The 19 miles of the initial shortline that RailTex used to connect Oxford, North Carolina, are no longer being used.