Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad: Map, Rosters, Logo

Last revised: October 14, 2026

The Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac was a bridge railroad, about 113 miles from Richmond to Washington. Chartered on February 25, 1834, it opened to the South Anna River on February 13, 1836, and it remained a Virginia company until October 10, 1991, when CSX Transportation took it. Reporting mark RFP. The slogan was Linking North and South. Six trunk lines held the stock, the freights ran as extras, and the blue-and-grey 4-8-4s carried the names of Virginia generals, governors, and statesmen. The since-1900 steam list is the steam roster. The diesels, 107 locomotives all-time, are the diesel roster. The August 1952 public timetable is on its own page.

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac E8As led by No. 1014 arriving at Fredericksburg with the northbound Silver Star on the morning of February 8, 1969

E8As led by No. 1014 arrive at Fredericksburg, Virginia, with train 22, the northbound “Silver Star,” on the morning of February 8, 1969. Roger Puta photograph.

On this page: At a glance · Charter · Quantico · Richmond-Washington Company · The double-track railroad · Traffic · Steam · Operations · Diesels · CSX · Potomac Yard

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad. Reporting mark RFP
Headquarters	Richmond, Virginia
Chartered	February 25, 1834
Opened	South Anna River, about 20 miles, February 13, 1836. Fredericksburg, January 23, 1837. Aquia Creek, November 1, 1842
Washington connection	Quantico, 1870, meeting the Alexandria & Washington. Washington Southern absorbed in 1920
Main line	113.1 miles southbound and 113.5 miles northbound, the difference being the loop into Broad Street Station
Mileage, 1952	118 miles, including trackage rights
Gauge	4 feet, 8½ inches
Slogan	Linking North and South
Steam	Numbered series only. Last revenue steam, December 17, 1954. Steam roster
Diesels	107 locomotives, all-time. Alco S2s, then Electro-Motive. Diesel roster
Successor	CSX Transportation, agreement of October 10, 1991

Charter

E. L. Thompson, in “Richmond-Washington” (Trains, November 1946), dates the charter to February 25, 1834. The object was a railroad north from the state capital toward the Potomac. Rails reached the South Anna River on February 13, 1836, about 20 miles. Thompson calls it the sixth railroad chartered in Virginia and the third to use a steam locomotive. Fredericksburg opened on January 23, 1837. On November 1, 1842, the line reached Aquia Creek, where a dock could take the Potomac steamboats. Construction then paused for more than twenty years.

Washington was already on a railroad. The Baltimore & Ohio opened its 32-mile Washington Branch from Relay, Maryland, on August 25, 1835. Don Phillips, in “Gateway Between Blue And Gray” (Trains, November 1977), describes the trip that remained: the Baltimore & Ohio into the capital, a steamboat down the Potomac, and a stagecoach from Potomac Creek to the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac’s end of track. Aquia Creek retired the stagecoach. It did not yet make an all-rail route.

Quantico

The Civil War sat on this railroad. Union troops tore up the line repeatedly. The famous job of rebuilding was Herman Haupt’s trestle over Potomac Creek, stood up in nine days, May 6–15, 1862, about 400 feet long and nearly 80 to 100 feet high, after the 1842 bridge had been dropped. That account is on the Civil War railroads page. The company was moving again in 1870, when about 12 miles were added from Aquia Creek to Quantico. There it met the Alexandria & Washington, a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary that reached the capital by way of Newington, Woodbridge, and Alexandria. Quantico later became a large post of the U.S. Marine Corps. The meeting at Quantico was the all-rail link along this part of the coast.

George H. Drury’s chapter splits the finished route in two. The northern portion, Washington to Quantico, was two Pennsylvania subsidiaries, consolidated in 1890 as the Washington Southern. The southern portion was the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac. In 1901 the Richmond-Washington Company was formed to operate the two as one railroad. In 1920 the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac absorbed the Washington Southern.

Richmond-Washington Company

Phillips describes the 1901 purchase as a consortium of six carriers taking control through the Richmond-Washington Company: the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Chesapeake & Ohio, and the Seaboard Air Line. He puts their share at 76 percent, with the Commonwealth of Virginia holding the rest and a seat on the board. The Pennsylvania’s Washington & Alexandria was turned over as part of making one Richmond–Washington route. Drury, writing about the steam era, describes Richmond-Washington stock as held in equal parts by those same six railroads. The two descriptions belong to different moments, and both are left as their authors gave them.

From 1903 the Washington Southern and the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac furnished road engines in proportion to mileage. Washington Southern switchers worked Potomac Yard. Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac switchers worked Richmond. After 1904 the engines were lettered for the Richmond-Washington Line. In 1926 the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac renumbered the roster and classed it for the first time. There were still no class letters. Wiley Bryan, in “Capital Cities Route” (Trains, November 1941), says the railroad described its engines by numbering series.

The Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad logo. Author’s work.

The double-track railroad

Double track was begun in 1903 and was largely finished in 1905, except the bridge over the Rappahannock just north of Fredericksburg. That span was replaced with a double-track bridge in 1927. The finished railroad was a fast piece of double track. Ruling grades were 0.6 percent northbound and 0.8 percent southbound. Curves were held to 2 degrees or less, with superelevation. The rail was 130 pounds to the yard, and the line was under centralized traffic control. It could move more than 100 trains a day.

Drury calls it a 114-mile double-track main line. The operating distances used on the railroad were shorter, and they differed by direction, because every train reached Broad Street Station through a loop and arrived from the south. Northbound runs were 113.5 miles. Southbound runs were 113.1 miles. With trackage rights counted, the 1952 figure is 118 miles.

Southern Railway F3A No. 4135 leading a detouring passenger train north on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac at Ashland on August 22, 1969

Southern F3A No. 4135 leads Fs and a passenger train north on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac at Ashland, Virginia, on August 22, 1969, after Hurricane Camille took out the Tye River bridge between Charlottesville and Lynchburg. Marty Bernard photograph.

The Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac had no commercial branches. Two government railroads joined it. At Accotink, near Newington, an Army line of about 4.5 miles served Fort Belvoir. At Dahlgren Junction, which the railroad placed at Falmouth just above Fredericksburg, a Navy line of about 24 miles ran to the Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground on the Potomac, later the Naval Surface Warfare Center. That branch was afterward cut back to Sealston. The owning railroads, rather than a network of feeders, kept the bridge line full.

Traffic

Through the 1940s about 90 percent of the business was bridge traffic, and about 70 percent of that was through traffic: phosphate, aggregates, agriculture, cotton, paper, and the rest of what the northern and southern owners handed over. In the passenger years, Florida seasons could put passengers at as much as 40 percent of annual revenue.

Bryan’s named time freights, which the railroad still ran as extras, were the Richmond Merchandise, the Coast Line Special, the Seaboard Special, the Potomac Merchandise, and the Blue Eagle. The passenger names that used the bridge included the Silver Comet, the Silver Meteor, the Orange Blossom Special, the Champion, the Crescent, the Birmingham Special, the Florida Special, the Miamian, and the Palmland. Amtrak began on May 1, 1971, and took most of what remained. Southern’s Southern Crescent, Washington to New Orleans, kept using the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac until 1979.

Steam

The railroad’s own steam, from the 1900 Ten-Wheelers through the last 4-8-4s, is tabulated on the steam roster. The early road engines were 4-6-0s, then 4-6-2s. Drury notes that 69-inch drivers became the freight standard, and that the passenger Pacifics grew larger until four Baldwin engines of 1927, Nos. 325–328, weighed 342,600 pounds. Four Richmond 4-8-2s, Nos. 501–504, came in 1924 and 1925. Six Norfolk & Western class K3 4-8-2s, Nos. 515–520, were bought in 1944, stored through the war, and sold to the Wheeling & Lake Erie in 1948. Ten Lima 2-8-4s, Nos. 571–580, built in 1943, were virtual duplicates of Nickel Plate 730–739. Three simple 2-8-8-2s, Nos. 1–3, former Chesapeake & Ohio engines built at Schenectady in 1925, were bought in 1943 for the Potomac Yard hump.

The 4-8-4s were the only engines the railroad named. Baldwin built the five Generals, 551–555, in 1937: Robert E. Lee, T. J. Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart, A. P. Hill, and J. E. Johnson. They were rated above 66,000 pounds of tractive effort, 3,000 tons northbound and 2,500 tons southbound. They were too wide for the tunnel into Washington Union Station and too heavy for the Long Bridge, so they stayed in freight service south of the Potomac. Emergency passenger work, when it came, stayed on the Virginia side.

The Governors followed. Nos. 601–606 came from Baldwin in 1938, and Nos. 607–612 in 1942. Same cylinders and drivers as the Generals, 27 by 30 inches and 77-inch wheels, and about 60,000 pounds lighter. Bryan rates them at about 63,000 pounds of tractive effort. No. 601, in the photograph above, is taking coal at Ivy City in Washington. The ten Statesmen, 613–622, closed the steam purchases in 1944 and 1945, named for Virginians from John Marshall and George Washington through Carter Braxton. George Wythe is No. 620. James Madison is No. 618, a Statesman. No. 605, a Governor, is James Monroe.

Thompson counted about 115 locomotives in the immediate postwar roster, most of them steam, plus a small group of Alco S2s on the switchers. Freight was dieselized first. Road diesels began in 1949. Most of the steam was gone by 1952. The last 4-8-4 revenue runs were on December 17, 1954. About a year later the ten Statesmen were leased to the Chesapeake & Ohio. They came back and were scrapped in 1959.

Operations

A southbound passenger train left Washington Union Station on the Washington Terminal Company, used a short stretch of Pennsylvania trackage rights, and reached Potomac Yard. Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac rail began past RO Tower. At the south end the train passed AY Tower and Acca Yard, the Richmond freight terminal, and then entered Broad Street Station. The Chesapeake & Ohio and the Seaboard Air Line used Main Street Station. The Seaboard moved its passenger trains to Broad Street in 1959. The loop is why the northbound and southbound mileages differ.

Official 1940 system map of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad

An official 1940 system map of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad.

Map of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac from Richmond to Washington

A system map of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad. Author’s work.

The Chesapeake & Ohio’s own story begins as a branch off this railroad. Virginia chartered the Louisa Railroad on February 18, 1836, and the first trains, in December 1837, ran from Taylorsville, now Doswell, to Frederick’s Hall. Doswell remained the junction.

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac E8A No. 1015 leading a northbound football special at Ashland on November 17, 1968

E8A No. 1015 with a northbound football special at Ashland, Virginia, on November 17, 1968. Roger Puta photograph.

Diesels

Drury’s sentence is the short history. The railroad bought diesel switchers before and during the war, and it bought no road diesels until 1949. The switchers were Alco S2s, 22 of them, numbered 1 and 51–71, built from 1942 through 1948. One Electro-Motive SW1, No. 50, came from the Richmond Terminal. Road power after the S2s was Electro-Motive only. E8s took the passenger trains and F7s the freight, three FP7s arrived in 1950, and four GP7s arrived from 1950 to 1953. Those 22 S2s and 47 new road units, 69 locomotives, were the fleet that replaced steam. The all-time list is larger. It adds the SW1, a secondhand F3A, and the second-generation hoods, and it is on the diesel roster.

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac F3A No. 1111, with F7 grilles, at Alexandria on November 6, 1963

F3A No. 1111, with F7 grilles, at Alexandria, Virginia, on November 6, 1963. American-Rails.com collection. Built in November 1948 as Aberdeen & Rockfish 201.

Even-numbered diesels led north. Odd-numbered diesels led south. The practice shows in the Doswell photograph below: GP35 No. 131, an odd number, is on the point of a southbound freight.

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac GP35 No. 131 on a southbound freight at HN Tower, Doswell, on September 22, 1971

GP35 No. 131 passes HN Tower at Doswell, Virginia, with a southbound freight on September 22, 1971. Warren Calloway photograph. Odd numbers led south. No. 131 was built as No. 111.

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac GP7 No. 101 leading a southbound freight on Center Street in Ashland on May 6, 1972

GP7 No. 101 leads a southbound freight along Center Street in Ashland, Virginia, on May 6, 1972. Marty Bernard photograph.

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac FP7s 1201 and 1203 with other power at Bryan Park Terminal in Richmond on September 27, 1969

FP7s Nos. 1201 and 1203, with other power, at Bryan Park Terminal, Acca Yard, Richmond, on September 27, 1969. Roger Puta photograph.

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac GP40s 122 and 124 with GP7s 102 and 103 at Potomac Yard in Alexandria on March 29, 1970

GP40s Nos. 122 and 124, with GP7s Nos. 102 and 103, between assignments at Potomac Yard, Alexandria, Virginia, on March 29, 1970. Marty Bernard photograph.

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac GP40 No. 122 leading a northbound freight at Alexandria on March 15, 1972

GP40 No. 122 leads a northbound freight at Alexandria, Virginia, on March 15, 1972. Marty Bernard photograph.

Eight GP35s, built in August 1965 as 111–118, were renumbered 131–138. Five SW1200s came the same year. Seven GP40s followed in 1966 and 1967, nine SW1500s in 1966 and 1967, and seven GP40-2s in September 1972. That was the last new road power.

CSX

The owning circle shrank with the mergers. Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line became the Seaboard Coast Line on July 1, 1967. Chesapeake & Ohio and Baltimore & Ohio went under the Chessie System. The Pennsylvania entered Penn Central in 1968, and Penn Central entered Conrail in 1976. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved CSX in 1980. The Southern and the Norfolk & Western answered with the Norfolk Southern combination of 1982. By then the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac’s owners were CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Conrail, and CSX held two-thirds. Norfolk Southern had largely stopped using the line. Norfolk Southern and Conrail sold their shares. The agreement is dated October 10, 1991. Those three dates are different events. The main line is still the busy corridor between Richmond and Washington.

Potomac Yard

Robert Carper, in “Farewell To Potomac Yard” (Trains, February 1992), treats the yard as the place where freight from the north was made into trains for the run south. It opened on August 1, 1906. As built it covered about 450 acres and 52 miles of track. At its peak it covered 526 acres and 136 miles of track. The Pennsylvania strung catenary into the yard before the Second World War. Icing stations and the old pattern of reclassification lost their purpose as the owners merged and the traffic changed. CSX sold the property in the 1990s, and much of the ground has been rebuilt.

Sources

E. L. Thompson, “Richmond-Washington,” Trains, November 1946. Charter, February 25, 1834. Rails to the South Anna, about 20 miles, February 13, 1836. Sixth Virginia charter, and the third to use steam. Fredericksburg, January 23, 1837. Aquia Creek, November 1, 1842. About 12 miles to Quantico in 1870, meeting the Alexandria & Washington. Baltimore & Ohio Washington Branch from Relay, 32 miles, opened August 25, 1835. Immediate postwar roster of about 115 locomotives, mostly steam, with a small group of Alco S2s.
Don Phillips, “Gateway Between Blue And Gray: RF&P…Conservative, Colorful, Capable,” Trains, November 1977. Steamboat and stagecoach connection before Aquia Creek. Six owners through the Richmond-Washington Company in 1901, 76 percent, Virginia the remainder and a board seat. The Pennsylvania’s Washington & Alexandria turned over in that arrangement.
Wiley Bryan, “Capital Cities Route,” Trains, November 1941. Named time freights run as extras: Richmond Merchandise, Coast Line Special, Seaboard Special, Potomac Merchandise, Blue Eagle. No class letters; engines described by numbering series. Generals rated above 66,000 pounds of tractive effort, 3,000 tons northbound and 2,500 southbound. Governors and Statesmen about 63,000 pounds.
George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 279–280. Washington Southern consolidation, 1890. Richmond-Washington Company, 1901. Absorption of the Washington Southern, 1920. Equal six-way ownership in the steam era. Power sharing of 1903, Richmond-Washington Line lettering after 1904, and the 1926 renumbering. Double track, grades, and the 114-mile main line. The since-1900 roster grid, the Pacific and 4-8-4 dimensions used above, the simple former Chesapeake & Ohio 2-8-8-2s, and the Statesmen’s lease. Drury names the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad Historical Society and recommends Richard E. Prince, The Richmond-Washington Line and Related Railroads (1973). Published rosters: Railroad magazine, November 1932, p. 554, and March 1952, p. 102.
Locobase, steamlocomotive.com, class cards 10076 and 276, drawing on the 1947 Locomotive Cyclopedia. Generals: works 61974–61978, 77-inch drivers, 27×30-inch cylinders, 275 psi, tractive effort 66,391 pounds, engine weight 466,040 pounds, tender 20,000 gallons. Too wide for the Washington tunnel and too heavy for the Long Bridge. Governors 601–606, works 62218–62223, 1938. Governors 607–612, works 64625–64630, 1942. Statesmen 613–622, works 71992–72001, 1944. The name lists, including George Wythe on 620 and James Monroe on 605.
Robert Carper, “Farewell To Potomac Yard,” Trains, February 1992. Yard opened August 1, 1906. About 450 acres and 52 miles of track as built. Peak of 526 acres and 136 miles of track. Pennsylvania catenary into the yard before the Second World War. The property sold by CSX in the 1990s.
Civil War railroads page on this site, for Haupt’s Potomac Creek trestle, May 6–15, 1862. Chesapeake & Ohio page on this site, for the Louisa Railroad connection at Doswell. Last revenue steam, December 17, 1954, and the return and scrapping of the leased 4-8-4s in 1959, as carried on this page’s previous text and matching Drury’s lease note.
The Diesel Shop, Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac motive power, revised October 9, 2016, information from R. Craig. Road numbers, builder dates, and serials for the diesel fleet, including the GP35 renumber from 111–118 to 131–138 and the merger date of October 10, 1991. Sources named there: Extra 2200 South, issues 18 (September–October 1969) and 80 (May 1984); Diesel Era, October 1999; additional notes by Martin Baumann, Marty Bernard, Chuck Till, and Bob Van Derveer. The Aberdeen & Rockfish roster on the same site identifies F3A 201, serial 7811, November 1948, sold to the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac in October 1952.
Electro-Motive order list for the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac, archived at TrainWeb. Order numbers used on the diesel roster, including 6171A for FP7s 1201–1203. The FP7 production roster on this site lists the same three locomotives, serials 12908–12910, November 1950, under order 6171.

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