Atlantic and Danville Railway: Serving Southern VA

Last revised: October 13, 2026

The Atlantic and Danville Railway was the Southside road from the Elizabeth River to Danville. It began as a three-foot line from the Meherrin River to a new wharf at Claremont, on the James, and it grew into a standard-gauge railroad through Franklin, Emporia, Lawrenceville, and South Hill, with a few miles in North Carolina. The company was chartered in 1882 and incorporated in September 1883. The tracks reached Danville on February 15, 1890.

The Southern Railway leased it from September 1, 1899, to July 1, 1949. On its own again, the Atlantic & Danville was a freight railroad with a small fleet of Alco road switchers, black with a white stripe. It filed for reorganization on January 19, 1960. In 1962 the Norfolk & Western bought it. The Norfolk, Franklin and Danville began operating the line at 12:01 a.m. on November 1, 1962. The last engines ordered in the old name were two RS36s, Nos. 1 and 2, built at Schenectady in October 1962.

Builder photograph of Atlantic and Danville RS36 No. 1 at Schenectady in 1962

An American Locomotive builder’s photograph of new Atlantic & Danville RS36 No. 1 at the Schenectady plant in 1962, one of two the road ordered. Warren Calloway collection. Black, with a white stripe, a white panel on the short hood, ATLANTIC & DANVILLE on the long hood, and A & D under the cab window. Alco serial 84119, order 21172, October 1962.

On this page: Claremont · West Norfolk and Danville · The Railway of 1894 · At a glance · The Guide map · The Southern lease · July 1, 1949 · April 1951 · The Alcos · The sale

Claremont

The charter of 1882 authorized a railroad to Danville. The first tracks were smaller than that. In 1885 the company opened a three-foot line, about 50 miles, from Belfield and Hicksford on the Meherrin River to a new wharf at Claremont, in Surry County. The two villages stood on opposite banks of the Meherrin. They merged in 1887 and took the name Emporia. At Hicksford the narrow-gauge line met the north–south railroad that would become part of the Atlantic Coast Line.

Claremont was a lumber port. The General Assembly chartered the Surry County Railroad & Lumber Company on December 2, 1882, and gave Claremont its own town charter at the start of 1886. The lumber company and the Atlantic & Danville shared the track from the Blackwater River to the James until the lumber company failed in 1886. Its successor, the Surry, Sussex and Southampton, built away to Scotland Wharf, opposite Jamestown, and left the Claremont wharves to the Atlantic & Danville. Ships would come up the James for timber. They did not come in the numbers a port needed, and Claremont never became the Hampton Roads terminal the builders had talked about.

One local change stuck. When the standard-gauge line reached Jerusalem, the county seat of Southampton, in 1888, the town renamed itself Courtland.

West Norfolk and Danville

In 1887 the owners started a standard-gauge railroad from the Portsmouth side of the Elizabeth River toward Emporia, about 78 miles, through Suffolk, Holland, Franklin, and Courtland. It met the original line at Emporia on September 5, 1888. The deepwater terminal was West Norfolk, on the western bank of the Elizabeth River, with a car ferry across to Norfolk and a connection there for the car floats of the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk, whose own tracks ended at Cape Charles. A branch of about seven miles ran from Shoulder Hill into Portsmouth. The city had taken stock on a promise of a passenger station, offices, and a roundhouse inside the city limits.

West of Emporia the railroad followed a line surveyed in 1872 for the Norfolk and Great Western, a company that had a charter and no track. The extension, about 133 miles, was finished to Danville on February 15, 1890. Danville was already a tobacco and mill town, and the Richmond & Danville was already there. The new route put that traffic on a direct line to an Elizabeth River port. To keep the grades down, the location crossed into North Carolina. The North Carolina railroad commission, reporting on December 31, 1891, measured 26¼ miles in the state, through Person, Caswell, and Granville. The North Carolina stations were Blanch, Milton, Semora, and Cunningham. The commission’s main-line description was Portsmouth to Danville, and the company was already in receivership.

Lawrenceville, the Brunswick county seat, grew up around the shops at the middle of the run from the river to Danville. South Hill was laid out by the railroad: lots on 56 acres in 1889, a town whose boundary was drawn as a circle a mile and a quarter across, with the depot at the center. The town was chartered in 1901. La Crosse, then Piney Pond, took its later shape after the Seaboard Air Line crossed the Atlantic & Danville there in 1900. A branch left Virgilina for the Holloway copper mine in North Carolina.

Clyde Parker’s accounting of the finished property is the one that matches the three pieces: about 211 miles from Norfolk to Danville, about 50 from Claremont to Hicksford, and about 17 from West Norfolk to Suffolk, together about 278 miles. Those are construction-era figures. The 1951 Guide and the later NF&D timetable measure the same main line differently, and both of those measurements are below.

The Railway of 1894

The bonds had been sold to English investors, Benjamin Newgass among them, on the prospect of moving Southside cotton to ships in the Chesapeake. The railroad was in the hands of receivers Charles H. Cromwell and Alfred P. Thom by the end of 1891. It was sold under a court decree and reorganized on August 2, 1894, as the Atlantic and Danville Railway. The Railroad Retirement Board’s employer list later carried creditable service from that day. Newgass consolidated his control in that reorganization.

The Portsmouth branch was an early casualty. The new company took up the track from Shoulder Hill to the Seaboard Cotton Press and kept West Norfolk as the terminal. On February 11, 1897, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals held, in Sherwood v. Atlantic & Danville, that the reorganized company did not have to honor the old promise to maintain a line inside the city of Portsmouth. The charter required a railroad to the Elizabeth River. It did not require the Portsmouth station.

At a glance

Item	Detail
Headquarters	Norfolk. In the April 1951 timetable, 115 West Tazewell Street
Chartered	1882. Incorporated September 1883
Reorganized	August 2, 1894, as the Atlantic and Danville Railway
States	Virginia, and 26¼ miles in North Carolina in the 1891 commission report
Reporting mark	AD
Gauge	4 feet, 8½ inches. The Claremont branch remained 3 feet
Main line, 1951	Norfolk to Danville, 205.2 miles, in the April 1951 timetable. West Norfolk to Boone, 6.0 miles
Later measure	The Norfolk, Franklin and Danville public sheet gives Norfolk–Danville as 210.8 miles and West Norfolk–Suffolk as 17.2 miles
Southern lease	Indenture of August 31, 1899. Term from September 1, 1899, to July 1, 1949
Independent operation	July 1, 1949, until 12:01 a.m. on November 1, 1962. Reorganization petition filed January 19, 1960
Diesels	Alco RS2s 101–106, RS3 107, and RS36s 1–2
Successor	Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railway, chartered October 2, 1962. Commission certificate and order October 29, 1962, Finance Docket No. 22288. Operation of the line began November 1, 1962

The Guide map

Atlantic and Danville Railway map from the August 1952 Official Guide

An Atlantic & Danville system map from the August 1952 Official Guide. Poole Bros., Chicago, plate 7113, dated November 7, 1949. The heavy line runs from Norfolk and Portsmouth through Suffolk, Franklin, Emporia, Lawrenceville, South Hill, and Clarksville to Danville, and it dips into North Carolina between Virgilina and Danville.

The map is the railroad after the Claremont branch was gone. What it shows is the standard-gauge main line and the port at the Elizabeth River, drawn across a South that already belonged to the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard, the Norfolk & Western, and the Chesapeake & Ohio. The combined Guide page, map and timetable together, is on the Norfolk, Franklin and Danville page.

The Southern lease

The Southern wanted a line of its own from the Washington–Atlanta main line at Danville down to a Hampton Roads terminal, without building one. The indenture is dated August 31, 1899. Henry S. Haines, vice president, and Adam Tredwell, secretary, signed for the Atlantic & Danville. Frank S. Gannon, third vice president, signed for the Southern. The term began on September 1, 1899, and ended on July 1, 1949. A renewal for 99 years was available if the Southern gave written notice on or before July 1, 1944. The Southern did not renew.

The rent had two parts. By the 1920s the fixed rental in force was $109,000 a year. A contingent rental was tied to dividends on the Southern’s common stock, 218/12,000 of whatever dividend was declared on $120 million of that stock. The fight over that clause reached the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in 1928, in Atlantic & Danville Railway Co. v. Southern Railway Co. The Southern paid. It left the leased line short of a rebuilt main line of its own. When the term ended, the Southern moved its Norfolk business onto Atlantic Coast Line trackage rights between Selma, North Carolina, and Norfolk.

Under the lease the trains were Southern trains, and the engines on the standard-gauge line were Southern engines. The three-foot Claremont branch stayed a lumber branch. The Southern discontinued service on it in 1932. The Gray Lumber Company of Waverly kept trains on the track for its own logs, north of Waverly until 1933 and south of Waverly until 1938. After that the branch was gone. The 1951 timetable has no Claremont column.

July 1, 1949

On July 1, 1949, the Atlantic & Danville resumed operation of its own railroad. E. L. Keister was president. Passenger trains were dropped. The company kept the freight. Steam went with the passengers. The first diesels were already on order: Alco RS2s 101 and 102, serials 76989 and 76990, built in July 1949, and 103–106, serials 77426–77429, built in October 1949. RS3 107, serial 78902, followed in June 1951. George H. Drury’s historical guide counts the independent company as a Class I railroad.

The offices in the 1951 Guide are at 115 West Tazewell Street in Norfolk. The operating men were down the line. Flowers and Manning were at Lawrenceville, where the shops were. The traffic the railroad still had was Danville’s mills and tobacco, farm freight off the Southside, and peanuts moving toward the port. On January 19, 1960, the company filed a petition for reorganization and alleged that it could not meet its debts as they matured. It kept running, first under its own officers and then under a court trustee.

April 1951

Atlantic and Danville freight trains 85 and 86, from the August 1952 Official Guide. The table is effective April 1951. Diesel power. General offices at 115 West Tazewell Street, Norfolk. E. L. Keister, president. W. H. Flowers, superintendent, Lawrenceville.

Train 85, a daily freight, left Norfolk at 10:01 p.m. and reached Danville, 205.2 miles, at 5:45 a.m. Train 86 left Danville at 8:45 p.m. and reached Norfolk at 5:40 a.m. Franklin was 11:47 p.m. westbound and 3:53 a.m. eastbound. Emporia was 1:05 a.m. westbound and 2:35 a.m. eastbound. La Crosse was 2:59 a.m. westbound and 12:37 a.m. eastbound. The Guide’s slogan under the officer list calls that overnight service between Hampton Roads and Danville, a connecting link between the East, the South, and the Middle West. The column heading is freight service only.

The branch table is West Norfolk and Boone, freight only: West Norfolk, Churchland, and Boone at 6.0 miles. Beyond Boone the company reached Pinners Point, across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk, on Atlantic Coast Line track. That trackage-rights contract is dated July 1, 1949. The later NF&D sheet extends the West Norfolk line through to Suffolk, 17.2 miles, and it measures Danville at 210.8. The 1951 table measures Danville at 205.2. Both sheets are the railroad’s own public tables, and they use different mileposts.

The connection notes name the roads that boxed the Atlantic & Danville in. At Norfolk and Portsmouth: the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Norfolk & Western, the original Norfolk Southern, the Pennsylvania, the Virginian, and the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line. Along the line: the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, the Southern, and the Norfolk & Western. At Danville: the Carolina & Northwestern and the Southern. The circular mark on the page is the A&D of the Railway Company.

The Alcos

From July 1949 until the RS36s of 1962, the railroad’s own engines were seven Alco road switchers. The RS2 is a 1,500-horsepower unit with Alco’s 244 V-12, on a frame 56 feet between coupler pulling faces. The page for the model is the RS2. No. 107 is an RS3, the 1,600-horsepower successor, built in June 1951. Nos. 1 and 2 are RS36s, 1,800 horsepower, specification DL701, a 251C V-12, 57 feet 2½ inches between coupler pulling faces. They were built in October 1962 as Atlantic & Danville engines. The RS2s and the RS3 were traded to Alco against them.

No. 1, in the builder’s photograph, is the black-and-white scheme: a white stripe the length of the frame, a white panel on the short hood, the road name on the long hood, and A & D under the cab window. No. 2 carries serial 84393, in the same October 1962 order, 21172. The two serials sit apart in the builder list. No. 1, serial 84119, is the next number after the Apache Railway’s 700, 800, and 900, serials 84116–84118. No. 2, serial 84393, is the builder number immediately before Delaware & Hudson 5012, serial 84394.

Number	Model	Builder	Serial	Order	Built	Notes
101–102	RS2	Alco	76989–76990	—	July 1949	New. The first diesels of the independent railroad. Traded to Alco against the RS36s
103–106	RS2	Alco	77426–77429	—	October 1949	New. Traded to Alco against the RS36s
107	RS3	Alco	78902	—	June 1951	New. Traded to Alco against the RS36s
1	RS36	Alco	84119	21172	October 1962	New, lettered Atlantic & Danville. The builder’s photograph. Became Norfolk, Franklin and Danville 1
2	RS36	Alco	84393	21172	October 1962	New, lettered Atlantic & Danville. Became Norfolk, Franklin and Danville 2. Later Delaware Coast Line. Preserved as SNEX 5012

The four RS11s that later worked the line, Nickel Plate 558, 560, 561, and 562, were assigned to the Norfolk, Franklin and Danville in 1966 and 1967 as 201–204. They are on the NF&D roster. Nickel Plate 559 was wrecked in 1963 and did not come south.

The sale

The Norfolk & Western bought the assets out of the reorganization. Virginia chartered the Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railway Company on October 2, 1962. On October 29 the Interstate Commerce Commission authorized that purchase, in Finance Docket No. 22288, and it authorized the Atlantic & Danville to abandon operation over the Atlantic Coast Line between Boone and Pinners Point. The Wall Street Journal reported the approval on October 30. At 12:01 a.m. on November 1, 1962, the Norfolk, Franklin and Danville began operating the railroad, and the Atlantic & Danville’s creditable service as an employer ended. The RS36s were caught between the two names. They were built for the Atlantic & Danville in October 1962, the month of the new charter, and on August 1, 1963, they were still lettered Atlantic & Danville at Franklin.

From that point the railroad is the subsidiary: Suffolk offices, the blue NFD on the cab, the 210.8-mile public sheet, and the merger into the Norfolk & Western on December 30, 1983. That history, the 1969 map, and the RS11s are the Norfolk, Franklin and Danville page.

Sources

Clyde Parker, “Looking Back: Atlantic & Danville Railroad,” Tidewater News. Incorporated in September 1883. Three-foot line from Claremont to Hicksford and Belfield, completed in 1885. Standard-gauge extension begun in 1887, joined to the original line at Emporia on September 5, 1888. Completed to Danville on February 15, 1890. Parker’s mileage: about 211 Norfolk–Danville, about 50 Claremont–Hicksford, about 17 West Norfolk–Suffolk. Lease dated August 31, 1899. Operations resumed July 1, 1949, under president E. L. Keister, with passenger trains eliminated and steam replaced by diesels. Belfield and Hicksford merged as Emporia in 1887.
Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Austin Walker, “Retracing the Atlantic & Danville Railroad in Mecklenburg County,” February 6, 2026. Charter of 1882. Narrow-gauge operation of 1885 from Belfield and Hicksford to Claremont. Standard gauge toward West Norfolk begun in 1887. The westward line, about 133 miles, through Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and Halifax, on the survey of the unbuilt Norfolk and Great Western.
Virginia Places, “Atlantic & Danville Railroad,” citing William E. Griffin, Jr., The Atlantic and Danville Railway Company (TLC Publishing). The 1885 narrow-gauge start. Surry County Railroad & Lumber Company, chartered December 2, 1882, and the 1886 break with Claremont. Car ferry at West Norfolk, including the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk floats, from Engineering News, September 19, 1895. Portsmouth branch and the 1894 reorganization. Sherwood v. Atlantic & Danville, Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, February 11, 1897. Benjamin Newgass and the English bondholders. South Hill surveyed in 1889 and chartered in 1901. Lawrenceville shops. The Virgilina–Holloway mine branch. Claremont: Southern service ended in 1932, Gray Lumber north of Waverly until 1933 and south of Waverly until 1938. The leased line was not rebuilt as a Southern main line. Jerusalem renamed Courtland in 1888.
Carolana, North Carolina Railroads, Atlantic & Danville. Reorganized August 2, 1894, after a court sale. First Annual Report of the North Carolina Railroad Commission, December 31, 1891: 26¼ miles through Person, Caswell, and Granville. Main line then described as Portsmouth to Danville. Receivers Charles H. Cromwell and Alfred P. Thom. Stations Blanch, Milton, Semora, and Cunningham.
Lease of the Atlantic & Danville Railway Company to the Southern Railway Company, dated August 31, 1899, term to expire July 1, 1949. Yale catalog title for the printed lease. The habendum, the July 1, 1944, renewal-notice deadline, the fixed rental, and the contingent rental of 218/12,000, as printed in the record of Atlantic & Danville Railway Co. v. Southern Railway Co., 149 Va. 701, 141 S.E. 770 (1928). The opinion states the fixed rental then in force as $109,000 a year. Signatures: Henry S. Haines and Adam Tredwell for the Atlantic & Danville, Frank S. Gannon for the Southern.
Southern Railway Co. v. Flournoy, 301 F.2d 847 (4th Cir. 1962). The petition for reorganization was filed on January 19, 1960. The railroad alleged that it could not meet its debts as they matured, and it continued to operate, first under its own management and later under a court trustee. A supplemented agreement dated July 1, 1949, granted trackage rights over the Atlantic Coast Line between Boone and Pinners Point. The first and second mortgages are dated July 1, 1949.
Railroad Retirement Board, General Counsel Myles F. Gibbons to the Director of Wage and Service Records, November 21, 1962, file L-62-310. Employer Status List item 334, creditable service from August 2, 1894. Interstate Commerce Commission certificate and order of October 29, 1962, Finance Docket No. 22288. The order authorized abandonment of Atlantic and Danville operation over Atlantic Coast Line track from Boone to Pinners Point, and the purchase of specified assets by the Norfolk, Franklin and Danville. Auditor H. T. Williams, November 16, 1962: operation began at 12:01 a.m. on November 1, 1962, and the Atlantic and Danville ceased to be an employer that morning.
Official Guide of the Railways, August 1952, the Atlantic and Danville page. Map by Poole Bros., Chicago, plate 7113, dated November 7, 1949. Timetable effective April 1951. Freight trains 85 and 86. Norfolk 10:01 p.m. to Danville 5:45 a.m. Danville 8:45 p.m. to Norfolk 5:40 a.m. Danville at mile 205.2. West Norfolk–Boone, Boone at 6.0. Offices at 115 West Tazewell Street, Norfolk. E. L. Keister, president. W. H. Flowers, superintendent, and W. E. Manning, chief engineer, both at Lawrenceville. Franklin 11:47 p.m. and 3:53 a.m. Emporia 1:05 a.m. and 2:35 a.m. La Crosse 2:59 a.m. and 12:37 a.m.
George H. Drury, The Historical Guide to North American Railroads (Kalmbach, 1985), p. 25, as cited for the independent company’s Class I standing, the Southern lease of 1899–1949, the Claremont branch, and the 1962 sale. George W. Hilton, American Narrow Gauge Railroads (Stanford University Press, 1990), p. 540, as cited for Southern discontinuance of the Claremont branch in 1932 and Gray Lumber Company use through 1938.
Alco production rosters on this site, and The Diesel Shop RS2, RS3, and RS36 rosters. RS2s 101–102, serials 76989–76990, July 1949. RS2s 103–106, serials 77426–77429, October 1949. RS3 107, serial 78902, June 1951. RS36s 1 and 2, serials 84119 and 84393, October 1962. On the same RS36 page, Apache Railway 700, 800, and 900 are serials 84116–84118, and Delaware & Hudson 5012–5023 are serials 84394–84405. RS36 specification from that page: DL701, 251C V-12, 1,800 horsepower, 57 feet 2½ inches between coupler pulling faces.
Railroad Picture Archives. Order 21172 on serials 84119 and 84393. Jerry LaBoda scan, August 1, 1963, Franklin, Virginia: the two RS36s still lettered Atlantic & Danville. No. 2 later to the Delaware Coast Line and to SNEX 5012.
Virginia State Corporation Commission, entity 00946913, Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railway Company, incorporated October 2, 1962, merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway Company effective December 30, 1983. Wall Street Journal, October 30, 1962, as cited by Virginia Places, for the Commission’s approval of the purchase.

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