Richmond Division Recollections

Part Two
Piedmont Subdivision

Trevillian depot with the village post office in the waiting room.

Trevillian, Pendleton, Buckner, Doswell, Hanover, and Ellerson

Trevillian was a larger wooden depot with the town post office inside the former waiting rooms. I am uncertain what may have been stored in the freight room. Local lore was that the station building was used as a hospital during the civil war, but I am uncertain whether it was the one shown above or an earlier structure.

Pendleton was a closed agency with doors wide open. My understanding is that the agent at Mineral had spent a few hours there daily until the North Anna Power Station at Frederick Hall increased traffic, so that Pendleton became a non-agency station. I retrieved a tariff case from the depot which now resides at Boyce. Read more

Editor’s notebook

Dunkum Store - Green Springs, Virginia - July, 2016
Dunkum Store – Green Springs, Virginia – July, 2016
At the crossing . . .
Grade crossings are among the most mundane aspects of the railroad landscape, but they are not without interest for photographers. 

So on a drizzly afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I decided to undertake a small project to photograph the grade crossings along the old Chesapeake and Ohio Piedmont Subdivision, which is not too far from my home. Chartered as the Louisa Railroad in 1836, the Piedmont Sub is the oldest section of C&O track. It extends from Richmond, Virginia to Charlottesville and the line is still in use today, operated by the regional shortline Buckingham Branch Railroad.

The old store at the crossing at Green Springs, Virginia has an interesting story to tell. Shortly after midnight, on April 15, 1914, Buck Dunkum was awakened by cries of "fire!" and looked out of his bedroom window to see his store engulfed in flame. Later that same morning, Victor Hall was shot in the head and lay fatally wounded in his general store, just across the tracks from the smoldering ruins of Dunkum's store. His wife, Elizabeth Hall, was charged with his murder and a sensational trial followed. 

Today, little remains of Green Springs. Rail passenger service ended in 1945 and the C&O demolished the Green Springs Depot and tore up the siding. Most of the other buildings, including the Hall house and store are gone. In 1914, Dunkum rebuilt his store on the original foundation and today it stands vacant next to the tracks at this lonely grade crossing.

Edd Fuller


We now have a Facebook page! Please take a minute to visit, like and share our page with friends.

The Trackside Photographer Facebook Page