Chesapeake Western Railway

The Chesapeake Western Railway is an intrastate railroad in west-central Virginia that traces its origin to an 1871 narrow-gauge charter as the Washington, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad. Construction under the renamed Chesapeake and Western Railroad began in 1895, and the line opened in Harrisonburg on March 23, 1896, running both east and west; during its independent years it was known locally as the Crooked and Weedy and as General Robert E. Lee's Railroad. Renamed the Chesapeake Western Railway in 1901, the company operated independently through hard times in the 1930s before being revived under new ownership in 1938, then was purchased by the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1954, ending its independence. Following Norfolk and Western's 1980s merger with Southern Railway, it became part of Norfolk Southern, which still operates it today as a wholly owned subsidiary hauling agricultural products, paper and other manufactured goods over two intersecting lines in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.