Virginia Blue Ridge

Company History: The VBR was established in 1915 by timber interests to move the products of chestnut forests around the confluence of the Tye and Piney Rivers to a connection with Southern Railway in the town of Tye River, Virginia. branchlines came and went but on average, VBR ran around 16 miles of line. The railroad and timber companies were racing a chestnut blight outbreak that had started on Long Island in 1904 and was working its way down the eastern seaboard. In 1917, America’s railroads were nationalized under the USRA for the duration of the First World War. Two lumber mills on the VBR were declared non-essential to the war effort by another government department and the USRA closed the railroad. At the end of the war, VBR and the local timber industry were permitted to re-open but by that time, the blight was making inroads into the region and the lumber traffic began to trail off. Apple farming moved into the area providing some traffic for the VBR. They also hauled acid wood used to extract tannic acid. By the mid-20s, VBR was running just 3 days per week. In 1931, an ilmenite mine and mill were established along the VBR. This operation produced titanium dioxide. It took several years before this operation began to receive and ship much of anything over the VBR but loads of coal, aluminum sulfate, caustic soda, limestone, scrap, sulfur and sulfuric acid ultimately began arriving at the plant and they began shipping titanium dioxide pigments. Later, aplite (a quartz/feldspar blend used to make glass among other things) traffic was also added to the mix. VBR was fond of steam, even buying a pair of secondhand 0-6-0’s from the U.S. Army in 1958. The VBR wasn’t dieselized until 1963.

The titanium dioxide operation closed in 1971 followed by the aplite operation at Dominion not long after that. That left an International Minerals plant as the only customer on the VBR. It closed in 1980 and with it, the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.