Washington and Old Dominion Railroad - General History

General History

Originally incorporated as the Alexandria and Harper's Ferry Railroad, construction on the line began in 1855 by the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire (AL&H) Railroad. First intended to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River to reach the coal fields in the western part of Hampshire County, Virginia, that are now within Mineral County, West Virginia, the AL&H began operating to Vienna in 1859 from a terminal station on Fairfax Street in old town Alexandria. In 1860, the AL&H reached Leesburg in Loudoun County. Because of its proximity to Washington, D.C., the line saw much use and disruption during the Civil War. After the war, the name of the line was changed in 1870 to the Washington and Ohio Railroad. The line was extended from Leesburg to Hamilton in 1870 and to Round Hill in 1874.

Upon acquisition by new owners in the 1880s, the line's name was changed twice: first to the Washington and Western Railroad in 1882 and in the next year to the Washington, Ohio and Western (WO&W) Railroad. However, the line's trains did not serve either Washington, Ohio, or the West.

In 1886, the Richmond and Danville Railroad, a trunk line that connected New York City, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and New Orleans, leased the WO&W. In 1888, the Richmond and Danville began to operate the WO&W's trains between Washington, D.C., and Round Hill.

In 1894, the newly-formed Southern Railway absorbed the Richmond and Danville Railroad and acquired the WO&W. In 1900, the Southern Railway extended the line westward for four miles from Round Hill to Bluemont (formerly Snickersville). The Southern Railway designated the line as its Bluemont Branch.

By 1908, steam locomotives were hauling Southern Railway passenger trains from the new Union Station in Washington, D.C., to Alexandria Junction (north of old town Alexandria), where they switched to travel westward on the Bluemont Branch. Connecting trains shuttled passengers between Alexandria Junction and the former AL&H terminal in old town Alexandria. On weekends, express trains carried vacationers from Washington to Bluemont and other towns in western Loudoun County in which resorts had developed.

Meanwhile, in 1906, electric trolleys had begun to run on the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad (GF&OD) northwest to Great Falls from Georgetown in Washington, D.C. This line crossed the Potomac River on the old Aqueduct Bridge, passed through Rosslyn, and traveled northwest on a double-tracked line through Arlington and Fairfax County to an amusement park (trolley park) that the railway constructed and operated near the Falls.

In 1911, the owners of the GF&OD formed a new corporation, the Washington and Old Dominion Railway. In that year, the owners concluded negotiations with the Southern Railway to lease the Southern's Bluemont Branch and to take over all service on the branch on July 1, 1912. The lease excluded the portion of the Southern's route that connected Potomac Yard with the former AL&H terminal in old town Alexandria.

In 1912, the GF&OD became the "Great Falls Division" of the W&OD Railway, while the Southern's Bluemont Branch became a part of the W&OD Railway's "Bluemont Division". The W&OD electrified all of its operations over the next four years, becoming an interurban electric trolley system that carried passengers, mail, milk and freight. From that time onward, W&OD trains crossed over Potomac Yard on a long viaduct constructed earlier for the Southern Railway. In contrast to the Southern Railway's earlier Bluemont Branch service, the W&OD Railway's Bluemont Division did not serve Washington's Union Station.

To join its two lines, the W&OD Railway constructed in 1912 a double-tracked Bluemont Division connecting line that traveled between two new junctions in Arlington: Bluemont Junction on the Alexandria-Bluemont line and Thrifton Junction on the Georgetown-Great Falls line. The connecting line passed a short distance west of Ballston, crossing on a plate girder bridge over a competing interurban electric trolley line (the Fairfax line of the Washington-Virginia Railway; see Northern Virginia trolleys) that carried passengers between Rosslyn, Clarendon, Ballston, Falls Church, Vienna and Fairfax City.

The railway distributed direct current (DC) to its Bluemont Division cars and trains through overhead catenary lines. Single overhead lines carried the Great Falls Division's electricity over its tracks. Stationary and movable electrical substations containing Westinghouse transformers and AC to DC converters were located at various points along the railway's routes.

The W&OD's main passenger line ran from Georgetown and Rosslyn through Thrifton Junction, Bluemont Junction and westward to Bluemont. However, after crossing the Potomac River from Georgetown, many W&OD passengers transferred in Rosslyn to the trolleys of the competing Washington-Virginia Railway. Most of the W&OD's freight trains ran between Potomac Yard, Bluemont Junction and either Rosslyn or various locations along the Bluemont Division.

In 1923, the W&OD Railway ceased operating from Georgetown when the federal government replaced the aging Aqueduct Bridge with the new Francis Scott Key Bridge. At the same time, the railroad constructed a new passenger station in Rosslyn which became its "Washington" terminal.

The W&OD Railway fell upon hard times in the 1930s during the Great Depression. In 1932, the railway went into bankruptcy and was placed in receivership. In 1934, the railway abandoned operations on the Great Falls Division between Thrifton Junction and Great Falls.

In 1936, a new corporation, the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, assumed operation of the remnants of the W&OD Railway, which by then consisted only of the Railway's Bluemont Division and the portion of the former Great Falls Division that had remained between Rosslyn and Thrifton (which was no longer a junction). Shortly thereafter, in 1939, the railroad abandoned the western end of its line, which had connected the towns of Purcellville and Bluemont.

In 1943, the W&OD Railroad acquired ownership of the section of line between Potomac Yard and Purcellville that the W&OD Railway had earlier leased from the Southern Railway. The Southern Railway retained ownership of the easternmost section of the railroad's route between Potomac Yard and old town Alexandria.

During the 1940s, the W&OD Railroad converted all of its lines' operations from electric to diesel or gasoline power. During that decade, the railroad discontinued its electrified passenger service in 1941, but temporarily resumed passenger service during the Second World War using gas-electric motor cars and cars pulled by diesel-electric locomotives. Passenger and mail service finally ended in 1951; thereafter, the railroad carried only freight.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) purchased the W&OD Railroad in 1956, but did not change the railroad's name. In 1963, the C&O abandoned the segment of its line that traveled between Rosslyn, Thrifton and Ballston. The Commonwealth of Virginia then purchased this segment to acquire a right-of-way for the planned route of Interstate 66 (I-66).

Five years later, in 1968, the railroad, which by that time ran only between Alexandria and Purcellville, ceased operations. Shortly thereafter, the C&O sold the remainder of the railroad's route to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Commonwealth then sold most of the route to the Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) (now Dominion Virginia Power), whose transmission lines had run along the railroad's right-of-way. The Commonwealth retained a portion of the route in Arlington immediately east of Falls Church, on which it built I-66, and the section of the route which crossed the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway (presently part of Interstate 395 (I-395)) along the Arlington-Alexandria boundary.