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| On a January, 1985 morning a piggyback train rolls south near Fredericksburg, Virginia on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad, which no longer exists. (click to enlarge) |
Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac locomotive #123 leads a piggyback train (now, I believe, called a Trailer on Flat Car, TOFC or intermodal train) southbound near Fredericksburg Virginia on a cold January morning in 1985.
The RF&P Railroad was an interesting Class 1 line. It operated only 113 miles of rail between Richmond, Virginia's Acca Yard and Alexandria, Virginia's Potomac Yard. First chartered in 1834, the CSX Railroad bought it in 1991 at which time the RF&P ceased to exist.
Richmond's Acca Yard is still a major north/south railroad hub but Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Virginia is now only a memory. Apartments, condominiums and shopping centers now occupy what was once a major east coast rail yard.
Although I didn't get to photograph the RF&P often, I did enjoy the times I did. On this particular trip, there were three of us who traveled to the Fredericksburg area to meet another friend for the weekend. It was very cold that weekend and did our best to stay warm. Not only was it very cold but it snowed the day after this photo was made!
Another memory of that trip just came to mind. We stayed in a really cheap motel just off I-95 at its exit with U.S. Route 17 just north of Fredericksburg. We didn't check in until after dark, immediately went to get something to eat then back to the room to get some sleep for an early rise the next morning. When I woke up in the morning, the gap under the room door (which I guess I didn't notice the night before) allowed about a half inch of snow to accumulate about 2 inches inside the room! Talk about a dive!
The old RF&P mainline still has many places that provide good compositions, just for CSX trains today.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Hmmm, do I sense a future blog post... Dennis' worst motel experiences? LOL
ReplyDeleteDid you know that you dropped a cryptic reference to the Z8 a few entries ago? Have you been spending more retirement cash?
Hmmmm! Thanks for the idea for a humorous blog post. I used to travel extensively and have several (now) humorous stories about some of my stays. They didn’t seem so humorous at the time, however. As for any cryptic reference, all will be revealed on Friday. 😏
DeleteYears ago I knew an old conductor on the RF&P. He explained that RF&P stood for "Run Fast and Push". It was also known as the richest short track railroad in the US because it owned the major North-South track line between Washington and Richmond. The main line continues to be busy today with numerous freight and Amtrak trains each day.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I used to know Bill Griffin, at the time an RF&P manager out of Richmond. After CSX took over and he was moved to Jacksonville, he wrote quite a good book about the railroad. He told me basically the same thing.
DeleteI have a copy of that book. Well written, with many interesting historical facts. The Obama Administration made an attempt at constructing high speed rail through this area. Fortunately, that attempt was defeated by local landowners who would have suffered a substantial loss of property and livelihood. Then the plan was to add a third high speed rail to the existing track bed. That made no sense to anyone but the government minions sent to make it happen. Fortunately, the Ashland subway is no longer on the front burner.
ReplyDelete