Washington & Old Dominion Railroad GE 95 Tonner #57, B&O Riverside Yard, Baltimore, MD, January 19, 1969, by Roger Puta via Wikipedia Commons.
Originally published in the June 2024 edition of Greet Del Ray.
Del Ray was established based on the availability of transportation, and one of those transportation lines was the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad. The railroad was originally constructed in 1855 passing through the Oakville Plantation (see the August 2023 issue) on its way from Alexandria to Leesburg. When Wood, Harmon & Company first laid out Del Ray in 1894 (see the April 2023 issue), the communities of Del Ray and St. Elmo straddled the W&OD rail lines. The rail line offered passenger service between Del Ray and Washington (via Old Town) or Vienna, Herdnon, Leesburg and beyond from the Alexandria Junction Station at Hume Ave. The railroad also offered cargo service which included several spurs into the new industrial park at Oakville Triangle.
In its heyday around 1911, the railroad’s passenger service was similar to today’s Virginia Railway Express (VRE), but it made the majority of its money hauling cargo from the Shenandoah to the Alexandria waterfront. The contract with the Postal Service to haul mail was all that kept the passenger lines profitable. When the Postal Service switched to trucks in 1951, passenger service on the W&OD came to an end. The railroad had struggled with profitability from the start and eventually went bankrupt in 1968. The last train rolled through Del Ray on 27 August 1968.
The railroad’s line through Arlington, Falls Church, Fairfax and Loudon became the W&OD Trail. However, in Alexandria, it was broken up. The major part of it through Del Ray became the Mt. Jefferson Park. The recent refurbishment of the park revealed several of the old rail lines that can be seen in the ground near the Stewart Ave. entrance. The park includes several historical markers about the railroad, including the “Bluemont Line” marker near the site of the Alexandria Junction Station. The Alexandria portion west of this park was developed into the Vernon Square office park and the Mount Vernon Court residential development. The railbed is still visible behind the Food Star, and the footer for the bridge over Russell Ave. is still visible across the street from the Grace Espiscopal School parking lot. These remnants serve as reminders of Del Ray’s railroad history … if you know what you are looking for.