Founding and Early History
With financial assistance from the Virginia Board of Public Works, construction was started westward in 1851 from a junction with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad (O&A) at Tudor Hall in Prince William County (a location which the railroads called Manassas Junction) toward Front Royal and through Manassas Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Shenandoah Valley. It was completed to Strasburg in 1854. Building south up the Shenandoah Valley, the railroad reached Mount Jackson in Shenandoah County in 1859.
Part of the original plan for the railroad included a branch through Loudoun County to connect to Harpers Ferry and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Financial troubles and the American Civil War kept the line from ever being completed and opened.
Starting in 1854 a 35-mile section of the railroad from Alexandria to Gainesville was graded but track was never laid due to financial difficulties and the Civil War. This section, then known as the "Independent Line," was intended to bypass the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and associated costs. The Manassas Gap Railroad eventually merged with the O&A which rendered the unfinished line redundant. Today, several portions of the abandoned roadbed remain through Fairfax County.
The MGRR was a 4-foot-8-inch (1.42 m) gauge with 38 miles (61 km) of 60 pounds-per-yard T-rail and 52 miles (84 km) of 52 pounds-per-yard T-rail, comprising 90 total miles of track. A total of nine locomotives and 232 cars were operated on the line, serving 20 stations.
| Station | Distance |
|---|---|
| Manassas Junction | 0 miles (0 km) |
| Gainesville, Virginia | 8 miles (13 km) |
| Thoroughfare, Virginia | 14 miles (23 km) |
| Broad Run, Virginia | 17 miles (27 km) |
| The Plains, Virginia | 20 miles (32 km) |
| Rectortown, Virginia | 30 miles (48 km) |
| Piedmont, Virginia | 34 miles (55 km) |
| Markham, Virginia | 38 miles (61 km) |
| Linden, Virginia | 43 miles (69 km) |
| Happy Creek, Virginia | ? miles |
| Front Royal, Virginia | 51 miles (82 km) |
| Riverton, Virginia | ? miles |
| Buckton, Virginia | 56 miles (90 km) |
| Waterlick, Virginia | ? miles |
| Strasburg, Virginia | 61 miles (98 km) |
| Toms Brook, Virginia | 68 miles (109 km) |
| Woodstock, Virginia | 75 miles (121 km) |
| Edinburg, Virginia | 81 miles (130 km) |
| Mount Jackson, Virginia | 87 miles (140 km) |
Read more about this topic: Manassas Gap Railroad
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