NS Piedmont Division, Washington District

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The Washington District of NS's Piedmont Division, the former main line of the Southern Railway, connects Alexandria and Lynchburg. Over much of its course the line runs through the rolling hills and rivers of the Virginia Piedmont. There are long bridges at Remington, Rapidan, South Rivanna River and Tye River. The terrain becomes more rugged south of Charlottesville. Coming into Lynchburg from the north, the line crosses the James River trestle and enters the Rivermont tunnel before reaching Kemper St. Station. There are extant stations on the ex-Southern line at Culpeper, Orange, Montpelier, Charlottesville, Oak Ridge, Arrington, Amherst and Lynchburg (Kemper St.) The stations at Montpelier and Oak Ridge were essentially private stations built to serve adjacent estates.

The line is a mixture of single and double track CTC. Dispatchers will usually announce meets at the end of double track segments. There are several high/wide and hot box detectors along the route that announce the presence of trains. Signals are Southern-style three color lights, mounted on bridges in double-track territory. Most signals are continuously lit.

The line is accessible over much of its length from parallel roads, overpasses and grade crossings.

Typical traffic and volume
There are often as many as ten intermodal trains scheduled through Charlottesville daily. At least four manifest trains run daily. Occasional grain and coal trains are also seen; they carry a 600-series symbol. Grain trains run to the Cargill elevator in Culpeper. Coal trains operate to the Pepco power plant in Alexandria. Many trains on the ex-Southern main head west at Manassas to travel along the "Branch" or "B-Line" to Riverton Jct., where they head north to Conrail in Hagerstown, Md. Amtrak trains 19 and 20 also run daily, stopping in Lynchburg, Charlottesville and for a flag stop in Culpeper. Amtrak 50/51 travel north of Orange on the NS, stopping at Culpeper.

List of symbols
Below are symbols for trains normally seen on this section of the Piedmont Division. See explanatory notes below for additional trains that may appear.

Typical Washington District Mainline Trains
Symbol	Type	Origin	Destination	Days of Oper.	Notes
Passenger
19	Amtrak	New York	New Orleans	Daily	Crescent
20	Amtrak	New Orleans	New York	Daily	Crescent
50	Amtrak	Chicago	Washington	WedFriSun	Cardinal On NS north of Orange
51	Amtrak	Washington	Chicago	WedFriSun	Cardinal On NS north of Orange
Inter-division Manifests
154	Manifest	Birmingham	Hagerstown	Daily	To CR in Hagerstown
155	Manifest	Hagerstown	Birmingham	Daily	From CR in Hagerstown.
Intermodal
203	COFC/TOFC	Alexandria	Atlanta	Mon-Fri	Runs as I03 on Saturday
204	COFC/TOFC	Atlanta	Alexandria,	Tues-Sat	Runs as I04 on Sun.
211	COFC/TOFC	Kearny, NJ	Atlanta	Mon-Sat	Via Hagerstown, occasionally runs on Valley Line
212	COFC/TOFC	Atlanta	Kearny, NJ	Mon-Sat	Via Hagerstown
213	COFC/TOFC	Worcester, Mass.	Atlanta	Daily	Via Hagerstown
214	COFC/TOFC	Atlanta	Worcester, Mass.	Daily	Via Hagerstown
221	COFC/TOFC	Front Royal	Atlanta	Mon-Sat	From Virginia Inland Port
222	COFC/TOFC	Atlanta	Front Royal	Mon-Sat	To Virginia Inland Port, runs as I22 on Sunday
265	Roadrailer	Hagerstown	Atlanta (East Point)	Mon-Thurs	Roadrailer, from CR, runs with CR power. Runs as I65 on Sat.
266	Roadrailer	Atlanta (East Point)	Hagerstown	Mon-Thurs	Roadrailer, to CR, runs with CR power. Runs as 244 on Sat.
Piedmont Division Manifests
341	Manifest	Alexandria	Linwood	Daily	From D&H in Alexandria/occasionally has CP power
342	Manifest	Linwood	Alexandria	Daily	To D&H in Alexandria/occasionally has CP power
456	Manifest	Roanoke	Hagerstown	Daily	To CR in Hagerstown.
457	Manifest	Hagerstown	Roanoke	Daily	From CR in Hagerstown.
Other
646	Grain	?	Culpeper	As needed	To Cargill
696	Coal	Bluefield, W.Va.	Alexandria	As needed	To Pepco plant
741	Coal	Alexandria	?	As needed	Empty Bow (NH) coal train, from D&H. Symbol is also used for other empties
742	Coal	?	Alexandria	As needed	To Bow (NH) via D&H
E41	Local	Manassas	N/A	As needed	Based in Manassas, works as far south as Charlottesville on a regular basis

Additional notes

Extra sections of 100 & 400 series trains carry an "M" designation.
Extra sections of 300 series train carry a "W" symbol.
Off-day and extra sections of 200 series trains are symboled with an "I", such
        as I03 which runs on Saturdays.
Extra sections of 300 series trains carry an "X" prefix.
Amtrak passenger extras carry an "R" symbol.  
Work trains and light engine moves have 900 series symbols.
Excursions, special trains and office car moves carry an "O" (as in Oscar)
        prefix.

Piedmont Division--Washington District

Manassas to Charlottesville--Southward
M.P.*	Stations	Tracks	Notes
32.6	Manassas.......	2MT CTC	Yard
33.8	Powell.........	2MT CTC
36.6	Bristow........	CTC
38.3	Nokesville DD	CTC
46.3	Calverton......	2MT CTC	Yard/ Casanova Br.
52.7	Bealeton DD	2MT CTC	Yard/ Casanova Br.
56.3	Remington......	CTC
64.4	Culpeper DD	CTC
66.0	Mountain Run...	2MT CTC
67.4	Culpeper.......	2MT CTC
70.8	Winston........	CTC
79.2	Rapidan DD	CTC
80.0	Rapidan........	2MT CTC
84.7	Orange.........	CTC	CSX
87.1	May............
91.5	Somerset DD
92.1	Weyburn........	2MT CTC
97.0	Harlow.........	2MT CTC
102.0	Gilbert........	CTC
105.5	Proffit DD	CTC
109.9	Rio............	2MT CTC
112.2	Charlottesville	2MT CTC	A, CSX

Charlottesville to Lynchburg--Southward
M.P.*	Stations	Tracks	Notes
112.2	Charlottesville	2MT CTC	A, CSX
114.8	Teel...........		X
115.8	Hickory Hill DD
120.4	Red Hill.......	CTC
126.5	Applegate DD	CTC
126.6	Applegate......	2MT CTC
132.0	Hamner.........	CTC
140.4	Gordon DD	CTC
143.4	Oak Ridge......	2MT CTC
148.0	Kingswood......	2MT CTC	X
150.1	Tye River......	CTC
150.2	Tye River DD
160.1	Sweet Brier DD
160.8	Angelo.........	2MT CTC
164.1	McIvor.........	CTC
165.1	Monroe........
169.1	Harris........
170.8	Rivermont DD
170.9	Rivermont......	2MT CTC
172.5	Lynchburg.....	2MT CTC

Listening in
56	Road Ch. 1	160.950
09	Road Ch. 2	160.245 (DS to train)
48	Road Ch. 2	160.830 (train to DS)
27	ARN (PBX-Charlottesville)	160.515
35	ARN (PBX-Manassas)	160.635
11	ARN (PBX-Monroe)	160.275
67	EOT devices	161.115
Piedmont Div. "North End" Dispatcher, Greenville, SC

Legend
* Miles from Washington 2MT Two main tracks CTC Centralized Traffic Control DD Talking defect detector X Crossover CSX Interchange/hyperlinked A Automatic interlocking

Notes

Dispatcher-controlled radio transmitters are in service at the following locations. Dispatchers will often announce which radio they are answering.

Dispatchers will often talk on Channel 2 when Channel 1 traffic is heavy.

Photographs from the Washington District
Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

1 2 3 4

Orange Montpelier Weyburn Charlottesville

5 6 7 8

Charlottesville Charlottesville Charlottesville Charlottesville

9 10 11 12

Charlottesville Charlottesville Charlottesville Teel

13 14 15 16

Teel Red Hill Red Hill Covesville

Page maintained by Paul A. Wilson/pawilson@starpower.net. Your comments are welcome. A special thanks to Vic Stone for his assistance with this page.
Page last updated January 1, 1999

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1	2	3	4

Orange	Montpelier	Weyburn	Charlottesville
5	6	7	8

Charlottesville	Charlottesville	Charlottesville	Charlottesville
9	10	11	12

Charlottesville	Charlottesville	Charlottesville	Teel
13	14	15	16

Teel	Red Hill	Red Hill	Covesville

Central Virginia Railfan PageNS Washington District

Piedmont Division--Washington District

Central Virginia Railfan Page
NS Washington District