The Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad (RF&P) was chartered in 1834 to connect Richmond, Virginia to Fredericksburg, VA (and later to Alexandria and then Washington, D.C. via trackage rights), the latter being a distance of a 113 miles. touted itself as linking the north and the south. As such the railroad did not originate much of its traffic at all. As the most direct link south out of D.C. over the Potomac River, it provided connecting service to a host of other railroads - from the North the B&O and the Pennsylvania. From the south it connected with the Seaboard Air Line, the Atlantic Coast Line. Between the former Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Virginia and several other key points such as Union Station (DC) along the way, the RF&P also had connections with the Southern Railway, Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, and the Washington and Old Dominion.
The RF&P was bought by CSX Corporation in 1991 and remains part of the CSX system hosting a variety of CSX, VRE, and Amtrak trains.
Besides being a major through freight carrier, RF&P did operate its own fleet of passenger trains and originate and operate its own fleet of trains. Below find a 1956 RF&P Timetable.
For more information about the RF&P, you may wish to check out the following links:
- RF&P Railroad Historical Society: http://www.rfandp.org
- Wikipedia Page on RF&P Railroad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_Fredericksburg_and_Potomac_Railroad