Mark,
This is a good book by William Griffin on the Atlantic & Danville. Do a Google search on Atlantic & Danville and you will probably find it still available from Amazon, Barns & Noble and other book dealers. If modeling interests you Atlas has an HO scale A&D Alco RS-36. Also if you do a search for National Railway Historical Society website you will find a listing for the Tidewater chapter located in Norfolk area. I believe this group may have one of the A&D Alcos and I am sure you will find someone with interest in the A&D.
Charlie
ONEHAGGIS Nobody???????????? . Well a few months ago I went to the James River Junction part of it, just west of Emporia and followed the Clairmont narrow gauge Branch right-of-way all the way to Clairmont. In many a place you can still see the right-of-way and even after 80 plus years of there are still four of the stations still standing in their original locations in good condition. Also, at Clairmont, you can still see where the roundhouse and turntable stood along with the very steep and winding path going down to the banks of the James River where you can still see the wooden footings for the piers, all this and much more, even after the Southern Railway abandond the branch 80 plus years ago. . That is why I was asking if anyone else was interested in the A & D. I know it's not a class one railway, or a good sized short-line, but at roughly 250 miles long, having both standard, narrow and duel gauges, one would think that more people would be interested in it. . Mark.
Nobody????????????
.
Well a few months ago I went to the James River Junction part of it, just west of Emporia and followed the Clairmont narrow gauge Branch right-of-way all the way to Clairmont. In many a place you can still see the right-of-way and even after 80 plus years of there are still four of the stations still standing in their original locations in good condition. Also, at Clairmont, you can still see where the roundhouse and turntable stood along with the very steep and winding path going down to the banks of the James River where you can still see the wooden footings for the piers, all this and much more, even after the Southern Railway abandond the branch 80 plus years ago.
That is why I was asking if anyone else was interested in the A & D. I know it's not a class one railway, or a good sized short-line, but at roughly 250 miles long, having both standard, narrow and duel gauges, one would think that more people would be interested in it.
Mark.
The only information I know that I have on the Atlantic and Danville is in old issues of the Guide, old Southern timetables, and Railroad Names, by William D. Edson.
From Railroad Names, we learn that the railroad existed (with no predecessor shown) from 9/1883 to 9/1899. When the fifty year lease expired (Whoops! I forgot I had this information, which is from a 1949 issue of Trains) 8/1949, the Southern let the road go, and it became active again as the Atlantic and Danville. In 11/1962, it became the Norfolk, Franklin and Danville. Since then, it has been drastically reduced as section after section was abandoned.
The June 1893 issue of the Guide shows a round trip passenger train from Belfield (now Emporia) to Claremont Wharf and back over the 3' gauge line. This line is still shown in the June 15, 1931 Southern timetable, with a mixed train using almost the same schedule as that of 1893. Did they use the same engine? The September 1936 timetable does not show the Claremont Wharf line, so it was abandoned some time between the two issues. The Southern timetables show James River Jct. to be 3.4 miles east of Emporia.
Incidentally, the A&D began at Pinners Point, not Norfolk. The Norfolk Southern and its predecessors, the Virginian, and the N&W were the only roads that went into Norfolk. All the others used ferries to get its passengers from Norfolk to their trains.
Johnny
With it having been abandoned over 80 years ago, it is highly likely only the locals (and the very old ones at that) can even recall it's existence.
If you ever get the opportunity to trace the lineage of one of today's Class I's you will see, many, many railroads you have never heard of as they lost their identity way back when as they were assimilated by the larger carrier. To have been taken over by a larger company and then abandoned back in the days of the "Roaring 20's" must mean that this line had very little economic reason for existing and without that, very little sense of loss among the populace about it's passing.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I WAS WONDERING, IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE WHO IS A RAILFAN OF THE ATLANTIC & DANVILLE RAILWAY? OR AM I THE ONLY ONE?
DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THERE IS A HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR THE A & D?
THANX
MARK
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