The Richmond & Danville Railroad, 1847

The Richmond & Danville (R&D) Railroad was chartered in 1847, with the railroad tracks completed by 1850 between the City of Richmond and Coalfield Station in Midlothian, Chesterfield County, Virginia. Within the boundaries of Forest Hill, Rockfield Station was situated near the north end of West 43rd Street. The station was the third stop on the line from downtown Richmond, after Manchester and Belle Isle.

The impact of the Richmond & Danville Railroad in Richmond was significant. By 1856, 140 miles of railroad tracks extended from Richmond to Danville. The operation of the R&D was important in the economic growth of Richmond in the antebellum period: “The railroads led to increased agricultural and industrial production…Before 1847, tobacco was the dominant crop in the South which required a mode of transportation to export the goods to the North and West. The Richmond and Danville Railroad was the railroad which could assist in the marketing of this crop…Railroads were the seeds of growth in Antebellum Richmond.”

One of the most traveled railroads in the state, the R&D had 23 locomotives, 18 passenger cars, six mail and baggage cars, and 328 box and flat cars in operation by 1861. Although the R&D did not initially extend beyond the state boundaries, it offered connections through Richmond and Petersburg to points along the east coast and into the Deep South: By 1860, Richmond’s commercial market had grown and internal improvements, particularly railroads, had surged…Railroads were more than a mode of transportation in Richmond. They were an essential component in the city’s transgression from an important social setting to a major commercial center.” In 1857, and 1858, respectively, the net revenues of the R&D Railroad increased by $256,000 and $267,000, and the shops of the railroad company employed between 500 and 600 men.

An early advertisement and map depicting the R&D Railroad stations proclaim “good eating houses at convenient stations, meals at regular intervals, close and prompt connections, and polite and attentive employees.” During the Civil War, the Richmond & Danville Railroad played a vital role in the war effort, connecting Richmond with other parts of the state. When Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet evacuated Richmond in 1865, they traveled to Danville on the R&D railroad, passing through Forest Hill. During Reconstruction, 1865-1894, the R&D Railroad, under the leadership of Algernon S. Buford and James H. Dooley, expanded to cover more than 3,300 miles of track in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. Following a period of financial instability, the R&D was reorganized by J.P. Morgan, emerging in 1894 as the Southern Railway Company.