This Month's Article: September 2019

Continuing to Build the new Nelson & Albemarle Railway Map

For five years, a search was made seeking details on the Nelson & Albemarle Railway track arrangement at Rockfish, Virginia. Creation of a new Nelson & Albemarle map was started but then stalled as the detail for Rockfish was no where to be found. Key to the new map was the plans for inclusion of various elements in the lifecycle of both the predecessor lines and the Nelson & Albemarle Railway's own evolution. The time period in question runs between 1901 and 1944 and featured the Schuyler Railway, the electric line originally established to support rail transport between the Rockfish Depot and the soapstone mill at Schuyler, Virginia and the rebuilt line providing proper roadbed for the Nelson & Albemarle steam trains that would include the former electric trolleys as part of operations from 1903 to 1944 when a serious flood of the Rockfish river and valley did irreparable harm to the rails and roadbed. There was so much damage that any option to rebuild that line was a financial impossibility if the same route was utilized. Thus ended the rail service between Rockfish and Schuyler and the move to have all rail transport served by the C&O interchange in Esmont/Warren. Because the line to Rockfish was not well documented in photographs, the importance of securing any detail became paramount to creating that new map. As mentioned earlier this year, a new source was identified and purchased to support as much detail as could be possible for the early era when the Schuyler Railway was in service. This Soils Map, developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, was based on a U. S. Geological Survey Sheet (map) of 1892 identified as the Buckingham Sheet. The soil survey (Field Operations) was conducted by Charles N. Mooney and F. E. Bonsteel in 1902 and the map is dated that same year. Fortunately also shown on the Soils Map are railway lines, roadways, and significant buildings (which includes the soapstone mill building at Schuyler, the Southern Railway depot at Rockfish, and the soapstone warehouse at Rockfish where the trolley line ran through the center of the building just across the tracks opposite the Southern Railway depot). As noted in 2015 only a year after our search for detail on the Rockfish trackage began, it was noted that the new map was using 7 sources to compile data but that list grew to 10 sources over the last year and they are shown here in chronological order: