The Buckingham Branch Railroad is a small, family-owned shortline railroad in Central Virginia. It operates two separate lines: the Buckingham Division (owned by the Bryant family) which is 17.3 miles long and runs between Dillywn and Bremo, Virginia; and the Shenandoah Division (owned by the Greater Shenandoah Valley Development Corp.) which is 20.2 miles long and runs between Staunton and Harrisonburg, Virginia. The Buckingham Branch is a freight railroad that delivers and receives carloads from CSX Corporation at Strathmore and Staunton, Virginia and Norfolk Southern at Pleasant Valley, Virginia. On the Buckingham Division, most traffic is outbound, originating in Dillwyn or other points along the railroad in Buckingham County. These include Kyanite ore (aluminum silicate), a high-temperature ore used in firebrick production for steel mills, spark plug production, high temperature cookware, etc. Kyanite is mined and processed in Buckingham and then shipped in bulk in covered hoppers or bagged in boxcars to points all across North America as well as overseas. A by-product of Kyanite production is sand which the Buckingham Branch ships to a foundry in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Buckingham Branch also hauls lumber in the form of untreated railroad crossties cut at local sawmills and shipped from Koppers Industries' local tie procurement yard to various tie treating plants on the east coast. Westvaco and Federal Paper Board have wood procurement yards on the Buckingham Branch and both ship longwood to their respective paper mills in Covington, Virginia and Acme, North Carolina. The Buckingham Branch also ships carloads of crushed stone and related products from the Buckingham slate quarries to various points in the U.S. and slate cinders to Solite Corporation plants in Virginia and Florida. The Buckingham Division also has a small amount of inbound traffic, primarily fertilizer for Seay Milling, a local farm supply business, and miscellaneous equipment for local industries. On the Shenandoah Division all of the traffic is inbound, being delivered to various points between Staunton and Harrisonburg. The primary commodities are liquefied petroleum gas for Dixie Gas & Oil in Verona, feed ingredients for Wampler Longacre and Rocco, Inc., grains for Valley Feed in Staunton, fertilizer for Houff Feed and Fertilizer in Weyers Cave, and lumber for Moore's Building Supply.
From the description of Papers of the Buckingham Branch Railroad Company [manuscript], ca.1990-2000. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647983717
