Winchester and Strasburg Railroad

In the years after the American Civil War the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad sought to extend its lines southwest to reach Roanoke, Virginia.^[1] It gained control of the Winchester and Potomac Railroad on July 1, 1867. The Winchester and Potomac's line extend southwest from the B&O's line at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, to Winchester, Virginia.^[2] To the south, the bankrupt and war-ravaged Manassas Gap Railroad merged with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad to create the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad.^[3] That company owned a line running between Manassas, Virginia, and Strasburg, Virginia, and was building a new line southwest from Strasburg to Harrisonburg, Virginia.^[4]

The Winchester and Strasburg Railroad was incorporated on April 23, 1867, to close the gap between its two namesake cities.^[5][6] Regular service over the line began on June 20, 1870.^[7] The B&O leased the Winchester and Strasburg from the outset.^[5] The B&O took control of the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad in 1872, though that company and its lines later became part of the Southern Railway system. ^[8]

The Winchester and Strasburg Railroad remained a non-operating subsidiary of the B&O for over a century, eventually being merged into CSX Transportation, the successor to the B&O, on December 29, 1987.^[9] Its line, together with that of the Winchester and Potomac, forms the Shenandoah Subdivision.

• Cartmell, Thomas Kemp (1909). Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants. Winchester, Virginia: Privately printed. OCLC 41246691.
• Interstate Commerce Commission (1934), Valuation Docket No. 1068: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, vol. 42 Val. Rep., p. 1
• Thomas, Charles (October 1961). "The Development of the Railroads in Washington". The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin: 23–32. JSTOR 43520286.