In General
Getting Here
Map
Sights
Pictures
Signals
Floobydust
USGS Maps

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In General


Location / Name:
Sandston VA (East Richmond), Henrico County

What's Here:
Two sets of signals
Really straight stretch of track in both directions from Charles City Road
A Single Crossover on the West Side of Charles City Road the other one is down by Miller Road
20/21 Industrial Sidings (depending on how you count em)
CSX Fulton Yard
The Richmond Airport
The Virginia Aviation Museum
Other than that, not much really, just a nice spot to take pictures

Data:
GPS Coordinates:  as needed
Phone A/C: 804
ZIP: 23150

Access by train/transit:
None local to Sandston

The Scoop:

Admittedly, this side of Richmond doesn't have a whole heck of a lot for the railfan to see, especially if you're not a fan of airplanes.

And now that the old C&O cantilever mounted signals at Charles City Road are gone, replaced by the now standard "Darth Vader" type colorlight signals, there is even less of a reason to visit the east side of Richmond on the old C&O.

In looking at the aerials tho, there still seems to be a fair bit of local freight operations servicing things like lumber yards.  So if you can catch a local working the area, you might get some good action.  At least from what the Google Aerial cameras caught, it looks like they send out two geeps on the freight.  The local freights probably originate in Fulton Yard.



Probably the largest concentration of hotels close to the downtown area is along Williamsburg Road.  There are also lots of hotels in the Midlothian area, but they are not as convenient to the majority of railroad attractions.

I wouldn't normally do a map for an area with so little railroad stuff, but I had this map laying around from years ago when I used to come to Richmond to visit a customer just south of Company 14.  If you get to travel for your job, and you're into trains, hopefully you get some spare time to get in a little railfanning as I did.  Richmond as a whole, has a lot going for it.

Please note, MY map below is not laid out as you would view it on a map.... as I "squared" everything up on the original.  I originally did this map some 20+ years ago when I was coming here for work.  When I updated the map, I corrected some of the "squareness", but in order to save time in redrawing the whole map, Williamsburg Road is still drawn as being straight and due east-west.  So, to help you orient yourself, I've included several other map views to help locate things.

Acknowledgements:
Larry Haake IV
Google Maps
Denver Todd

Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
None for now.....


Getting Here:

From the downtown Richmond area, you have several choices.  If you like doing the highway thing, you can take I-64 east and get off at either Laburnum (x195) or South Airport Drive (x197).

If you prefer the regular roads, take Main St east, it will jog to the right a little, and before you cross the tracks, Williamsburg Ave takes off to the left.  At Powhatan Park and Hatcher St, Williamsburg hangs a left and turns into Williamsburg Rd.

You can also take Broad St to Chimborazo Park, where you will pick up Government Rd, which will finally join up Williamsburg Road.

From north or south of Richmond (within reason), take I-295 and get off at exit 28a, US60/Williamsburg Road.


Map





Sights


  The Virginia Aviation Museum
Cool museum.... notice the Blackbird SR-71.





  CSX's Fulton Yard

This was a former C&O yard, and is located on the south eastern side of Richmond.

This yard is covered on page 3 of the Richmond guide, but I included it on this page, because technically, I guess it IS in East Richmond, and it is also the biggest thing on the former C&O line to Newport News.  Since I first did these guides around the 2011 timeframe, it appears that CSX has removed 2 tracks in the yard.









  from 2011

  in 2020





  excerpt from my Richmond 3 Map



Signals



There are only two set of signals in this area, both visible from the Charles City Road grade crossing.


Former C&O Signals

Not sure when CSX upgraded these signals, but this is what used to be here - two classic cantilever bridges, C&O style, on the backside of the Richmond Airport.





               

  Picture by Larry Haake IV

   



EB Colorlight Signals

GPS Coordinates: 37.495981, -77.336610






WB Colorlight Signals

GPS Coordinates: 37.495545, -77.334247











Floobydust


Richmond Airport







Historical USGS Maps


Courtesy of the University of Texas Library, click here for their index page.





Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals.  I am not an expert.  My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page.  This is something I have fun with while trying to help others.

Please Note:  Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct.  Once in a while, an error may creep in :-)

My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning.  Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented.  Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost!  I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches.  ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them.  If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.  Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

Aerial shots were taken from either Google or Bing Maps as noted.  Screen captures are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it! 

By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.

Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given!  Please be NICE!!!  Contact info is here

Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.

RICHMOND HOMEPAGE
RAILFAN GUIDES HOME
RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME

2007_0414


NEW JUL14/2011, SEP13/2013, APR30/2020
Last Modified 02-May-2020