Buckingham Branch Railroad

Buckingham Branch Railroads' tracks are located in the heart of Central Virginia. The routing was largely constructed in the 19th century by several railroad companies. These include the Louisa Railroad, the Virginia Central Railroad, the state-owned Blue Ridge Railroad (with famous tunnels designed by state engineer Claudius Crozet and financed by the Virginia Board of Public Works), and the Covington and Ohio Railroad. All of those lines became part of Collis Huntington's Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (later the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway) (C&O) in the 1870s, which connected the Chesapeake Bay with the valleys of the New River and Kanawha River, leading to the Ohio River Valley and thence the Mississippi River.

In the 1880s, Major James H. Dooley's Richmond and Allegheny Railroad was built along the James River along the former right-of-way of the James River and Kanawha Canal. It too became part of the C&O, offering a lower grade pathway for coal bound from the mountains to Newport News than the older line through Staunton, Crozet's Blue Ridge Tunnel complex, and Charlottesville. Diverging from the older line at JD Cabin just east of Clifton Forge, this became known as the James River line, rejoining the old Virginia Central tracks near Main Street Station at Richmond.

The short-line branch from Bremo Bluff on the James River line into Buckingham County transported kaolin clay from the unique and rare deposits of Willis Mountain, along with timber, quarried rock, and minor amounts of general freight.

As major railroads merged and consolidated in the late 20th century, many rail lines with low traffic were abandoned, spun off into short-line railroads, or became at risk for abandonment. With lower operating costs and personalized service to shippers, many of the short-lines were able to perpetuate rail service in areas where the Class 1 railroads could not operate profitably, even when subsidized by government entities. In 2021, the line between Doswell and Clifton Forge was acquired from CSX by the Commonwealth of Virginia as part of a broader program to expand passenger service. Buckingham Branch Railroad's operations would continue.

In December 2004, Buckingham Branch entered into a 20-year lease with CSX Transportation to operate 200 miles (322 km) of track in Virginia on the latter's Piedmont, Washington, and North Mountain subdivisions. Each were originally parts of the Virginia Central Railroad's line, and extend from Richmond through Doswell, Orange to Charlottesville, Virginia. From there, the line extends through the Blue Ridge Tunnel complex to Waynesboro, and Staunton to reconnect with CSX lines at Clifton Forge. The line which was the backbone of Collis Huntington's newly completed Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in the 1870s was supplanted by a lower-grade line along the path of the former James River and Kanawha Canal in the 1880s.

Unlike the original branch in Buckingham County, the new section is leased for a 20-year period. CSX retains overhead trackage rights on the trackage leased to the Buckingham Branch, and continues its same pattern of running empty westbound coal and grain trains over the route, sometimes as many as eight a day. Train crews must contend with this fact by continually dodging CSX westbounds, as well as Amtrak's thrice-weekly Cardinal by going into the various sidings along the lines.

This new section of the expanded Buckingham Branch was dispatched by CSX from Jacksonville, Florida for the first two years; now it is dispatched by the Buckingham Branch out of Staunton.