Use Restrictions

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to the James Madison University Special Collections Library. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library Reference Desk (library-special@jmu.edu).

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the James Madison University Special Collections Library to use this collection.

Preferred Citation

[identification of item], [box #, folder #], Charles Grattan Price Jr. and Don W. Thomas Collection on the Chesapeake Western Railway, 1872-1996, SC 0358, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.

Acquisition Information

The collection was donated to Special Collections in December 2019 by C. Grattan "Butch" Price III, son of C. Grattan Price Jr.

Processing Information

Materials were largely foldered and organized prior to being transferred to Special Collections. Those groupings and creator/donor provided descriptions were retained during processing.

Administrative History

In 1892, a group of promoters including Jedediah Hotchkiss incorporated to build a railway to carry coal from West Virginia mines to Gloucester Point, Virginia. Initially called the Chesapeake, Shendun, and Western Railroad, the name was quickly changed to Chesapeake & Western Railroad. Using part of the old Washington, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad right-of-way, and with $150,000 from the city of Harrisonburg to ensure that the railroad would pass through it, a 26-mile single-track, standard-gauge line was completed from Elkton to Bridgewater and began operating on March 23, 1896. In the next few years, substantial Chesapeake & Western stock was purchased by New York investor Thomas Stokes, who hoped to develop the coal mines in western Rockingham County but became mired in financial difficulties. His brother, W.E.D Stokes, purchased control of the Chesapeake & Western and also organized a new railroad, the Tidewater and West Virginia, in 1900. The Tidewater changed its name in 1901 to the Chesapeake Western Railway, leased the Chesapeake Western line for 99 years, and in 1902 completed 13 miles of rail from Bridgewater to the new town of Stokesville in North River Gap. Trains carried passengers as well as freight between Elkton and Stokesville. Plans were drawn up to continue the line into West Virginia but were not implemented.

For just over a decade, Stokesville boomed as timber, tanbark, and to a much more limited extent, coal, in the area were exploited. Stokes operated the Chesapeake Western with offices in Harrisonburg until his death in 1926. His estate continued to operate the railway until 1938. In 1928, the line from Mount Solon to North River Gap was abandoned for financial reasons. In 1933, the nine miles from Bridgewater to Mount Solon were also dropped. When the Stokes' heirs put the Chesapeake Western up for sale in 1938, Donald W. Thomas (1890-1962), a former Norfolk & Western Railroad employee who had been the general manager of the railway since 1926, fought a bid from Japanese scrap metal buyers and bought the line. At this point Thomas became Chesapeake Western's president and general manager, positions he held until November 1954. In 1943, Thomas also bought the Baltimore & Ohio's Valley Road of Virginia line which ran between Harrisonburg and Lexington. The line south of Staunton was taken up and sold for scrap, but the road between Harrisonburg and Staunton was improved and became an important link in the Chesapeake Western system because of the connection with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad at Staunton. The Chesapeake Western linked with the Norfolk & Western at Elkton.

In 1954, the Norfolk & Western Railroad purchased Chesapeake Western Railway, but the name was retained and was operated as a separate corporation. By about 1980, however, little or no rolling stock carried the CW logo any longer. Norfolk & Western and the Southern Railway Company merged as Norfolk Southern Corporation on June 1, 1982. Not long after that merger, a five-alarm fire burned the CW office located at Chesapeake Drive in Harrisonburg on July 28, 1982, and company offices and operations were eventually absorbed by the Norfolk Southern.

Charles Grattan Price Jr. (1919-1996), local railroad historian and enthusiast as well as a former employee of and photographer for Chesapeake Western Railway, authored "The Crooked & Weedy": A History of Virginia's Chesapeake Western Railway (1992). The title refers to Chesapeake Western's nickname - Crooked & Weedy - given to it by locals. The book is dedicated to Don W. Thomas who conducted much of the preliminary research into Virginia railroads. Thomas was unable to complete a written history himself due to an illness that culminated in blindness.

Scope and Contents

The collection comprises photographs and negatives, maps, annual reports, correspondence, administrative files, and research materials related to the Chesapeake Western Railway. The materials in this collection, which document the functions and activities of Chesapeake Western, were compiled by Don W. Thomas, former president and general manager of Chesapeake Western, and C. Grattan Price Jr., author of "The Crooked & Weedy": A History of Virginia's Chesapeake Western Railway .

The collection was created and used in large part to support Thomas and Price's research on the Chesapeake Western specifically and Virginia railroads generally. The culmination of that research is Price's book "The Crooked & Weedy": A History of Virginia's Chesapeake Western Railway (1992).

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into four series:

Related Material

Chesapeake Western Railway Company Records, 1916-1982, SC 0154, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.

Separated Material

The following items were removed from the collection and cataloged separately:

Issues of Shenandoah Valley Express (1995), the newsletter of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad Club

Chesapeake and Western Railroad Company Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Operating Department (1901)

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Annual reports
• Chesapeake Western Railway
• Letters (correspondence)
• Maps (documents)
• Newspaper clippings
• Norfolk Southern Corporation
• Photographs
• Price, Charles Grattan, III
• Railroads -- Shenandoah River Valley (Va. and W. Va.) -- History
• Railroads -- Virginia -- History
• Research (documents)