Front Royal and Riverton, Virginia

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sun Mar 16 14:31:41 EDT 2014


Riverton Junction was the location where the N&W crossed the Southern,
about a mile or two just west of the Southern Railway's Front Royal station.

This was a fairly busy place at one time for both RR's and the N&W had a
rather commodius station at the Junction. There are photos of it available
from the N&W HS from the 1917 Valuation survey. They include an image of
the crossing tower which was erected by the N&W predecessor line, the
Shenandoah Valley RR to control safe crossings.

In addition Southern maintained some sort of freight agency there at the
tower in the lower level, until it was closed in 1933 under order and
permission of the Va. State Corporation Commission.

In 1954, the N&W obtained the proper regulatory permission to close both
the Riverton station and the old Front Royal station and open a totally new
Front Royal depot at a different location. That building is still used
today by Norfolk Southern as a crew base. The Southern's Front Royal depot
was a totally different station and one of their old depots remains as a
community sales shop of some sort, still in its original location.

As for Riverton itself, that was west of Riverton Junction, across the main
branch of the Shenandoah River and on the SOUTHERN, not N&W and was opened
and maintained into the 1960's or thereabouts and today is long-gone.
Photos exist of it. The biggest old remainder at the out of the way place
of Riverton are the concrete footpads for the old water tank, once used for
the steam engines, but the old tank is also a long-gone piece of history.

I think this Riverton is what you are looking for and hope I have provided
a little start for you.

That's the bare bones basics. Hope this helps you some.

Bob Cohen

Hello,

I am very interested in getting some information regarding the Riverton Va
(River Town) location. This would be a siding, a platform and some water
tower foundations that are still present. This location is just west of the
Riverton Junction Va. I would like to know what railroad ran through here
and what structures were here at one point in history. I seem to find all
kinds of information on the Riverton Jct. but nothing on Riverton. Any
information, photos and maps would be greatly appreciated. I did find an
archive on your site slightly referencing Riverton Depot, by Bob Cohen.

Thank You,

Angelo
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