Buckingham Branch Railroad Company
1043 Main Street
P. O. Box 336
Dillwyn VA 23936
Phone: 434-983-3300
Fax: 434-983-3270
The Buckingham Branch Railroad (BB) is a family owned short line railroad in Central Virginia. It operates a line, owned by the Bryant family, which is 17.3 miles, operating between Dillwyn and Bremo. This line is known as the Buckingham Division. The BB leases and operates a 200 mile line between Richmond and Clifton Forge (via Charlottesville). This is known as the Richmond and Alleghany Division (R&A). And the BB leases and operates the Virginia Southern Division serving Burkeville to Clarksville via Keysville, a distance of 58 miles.
The BB is a freight railroad that delivers and receives freight cars from CSXT at Strathmore, Doswell and Clifton Forge. It also receives cars from Norfolk Southern at Burkeville, Charlottesville, Orange and Waynesboro and from the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad at Staunton. The BB also provides service for passenger excursions sponsored by the Old Dominion Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society.
Most of the traffic on the Buckingham Division is outbound, originating in Dillwyn or other points along the line in Buckingham County. This traffic includes wood chips from Alpha for Mead Westvaco and Kyanite ore (aluminum silicate), a high temperature material used as a component in firebrick, spark plugs, and high temperature cookware. Kyanite is mined and processed in Buckingham and then shipped in bulk in covered hoppers or bagged and shipped in boxcars throughout North America and around the world. Wood chips are shipped in open hopper cars to Covington, VA where they are used to produce paper. The Buckingham Branch also hauls lumber in the form of untreated railroad crossties. These are cut at local sawmills and shipped from Koppers Industries’ local tie procurement yard to various tie treatment yards on the East Coast. Long wood (trees stripped of their limbs) destined for paper mills is shipped from the Emerson-Clements Woodyard. Crushed slate and related products are hauled from the Buckingham Slate quarries to various points in the United States and slate cinders from Solite Corporation are shipped to plants in the Eastern U.S.
The R&A Division carries a wide variety of both inbound and outbound traffic. Inbound products include plastic pellets used for film production at Klockner Pentaplast Corporation, wood products for Nickander Associates, Sound Structures and Ruffin and Payne, coal for the University of Virginia, naphtha for Flint Ink, and newsprint for Richmond Newspapers, Inc. Feed ingredients and fertilizer are hauled for Valley Feed Company, Houff Feed and Fertilizer, Augusta Coop and Orange-Madison Coops. Propane gas is hauled for a Dixie Gas and Oil and Amerigas and cement is delivered to Transit Mixed Concrete and Essroc.
Outbound traffic on the R&A Division includes aplite rock from U.S. Silica, vermiculite from Virginia Vermiculite and stone from Martin-Marietta's Verdon quarry and Luck Stone's Charlottesville's plant. Treated railroad crossties are shipped by Stella Jones, Inc. and untreated ties are shipped by Koppers Industries. Feed ingredients are shipped by Bakery Feeds, Inc. and newsprint is shipped to major newspaper printing facilities by Bear Island Paper Company.
Customers on the Virginia Southern Division include Dominion Virginia Power Mecklenburg Power Station, Smurfit Stone and Alderman Railcar Services.
The BB operates five trains each week on the Buckingham Division for general freight customers. Additional trains are operated for specific customers and extra trains are scheduled as needed. It takes eight hours to make a complete run. This includes the time necessary to do all switching for the industries along the line as well as the switching at the interchange point.
The R&A Division operates on a scheduled basis five days per week. A Monday through Friday train operates from Staunton to Clifton Forge and return as well as from Staunton to Gordonsville and return. Trains also operate from Doswell to Richmond and return and from Doswell to Gordonsville and return. Yard duties are handled by trains in Doswell and Charlottesville. Amtrak operates The Cardinal over part of the R&A between Clifton Forge and Orange on its journey from Chicago to New York. In addition CSXT operates trains of empty cars westbound from Richmond to Clifton Forge on an as-needed basis.
The BB is customer focused and is active in sales and marketing and operates at the industry standard. It regularly exchanges information with other railroads regarding train movement, train consists, freight car billing and car accounting.
The steel wheel on steel rail is the most energy efficient overland transportation.