Chesterfield Railroad
In 1829 the Virginia General Assembly chartered the Chesterfield Rail Road Company, which built the first railroad in Virginia. Moncure Robinson (1802-1891), a railroad pioneer, designed the track, which once passed by here. In 1831, the company began hauling coal 13 miles from the Midlothian mines to the Manchester wharves on the James River. Horses and mules towed the loaded cars on some sections. Gravity propelled them on down hill grades and in one area the weight of the cars tugged the empty ones (connected to the full ones by ropes and drums) back toward the mines. This railroad functioned until 1851, when the locomotive-operated Richmond & Danville Railroad provided service to Chesterfield.
Marker is at the intersection of Midlothian Turnpike (U.S. 60) and Robious Road, on the right when traveling west on Midlothian Turnpike.
Courtesy hmdb.org
