Tidewater and Western Railroad
 |
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| Locale | Chesterfield, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1905-06-07–1917-05-07 |
| Successor | abandoned |
| Track gauge | 3 ft (914 mm) |
| Length | 1 routes 3 spurs: 96 miles (150 km) |
| Headquarters | Richmond, Virginia |
| Private | |
| Industry | Coal |
| Founded | (1881) |
| Defunct |
(1880's) |
| Headquarters | Farmville, Virginia |
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Area served
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Farmville |
The Farmville and Powhatan Railroad went bankrupt in 1905 and became the Tidewater and Western Railroad. The line survived until 1917 when it was pulled up and sent to France for the World War I effort. The Tidewater and Western Railroad carried freight and passengers along a route from Farmville, Virginia to Bermuda Hundred. The Farmville and Powhatan continued to have Western Union Telegraphs run along the rails. These connected to telegraphs on the Atlantic Coast Line along the East Coast of the U.S.A. and to Europe.
Rail Transport from Cumberland County helped Cumberland farmers sell fruits, vegetables and timber to Farmville markets. A magazine notice for renting the Turkey Island Plantation advertised that the farm is near the Tobaccoville station of the Tidewater and Western Railroad which would help the farmer get dairy products to market. From 1884 to 1917, the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad, later named the Tidewater and Western Railroad, was important to Cumberland County residents for markets and transportation and the telegraph. The owners hoped that the line would ship products all the way to Chester, Virginia and docks at Bermuda Hundred to make the railroad profitable. However, the line had trouble competing with the Standard gauge Southern railway.
(1880's)
The Farmville Coal and Iron Company built a one and a half mile spur rail line from the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad to the mine. This railroad provided transport from the mine to the docks at Bermuda Hundred in the Tidewater region. On Jan. 24, 1891, an editor of “The Financial Mining Record” suggested that the The Farmville Coal & Iron Company, did not have enough coal production to justify a fraction of its stock price. The Norfolk and Western Railway, since 1883, had been bringing in coal from a new coal mine, the Pocahontas Coalfield, which could provide coal more cheaply and ship the coal on a larger standard gauge, class one railroad. This decreased to the economic viability of mining coal in the Richmond and Farmville Basins. The Farmville Coal and Iron Company went bankrupt a few years later, possibly before any coal was mined.
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Wikipedia