Ashland, Virginia

Links

 * Train & Station Information: https://www.amtrak.com/stations/asd/
 * Live Feed: https://virtualrailfan.com/video-dashboard/ (for registered members only)

Ashland Facts

 * The crossing visible on the North camera and the 360° camera is England St & Center St in downtown Ashland.
 * When local schools are in session, a crossing guard (usually Leroy) waves school buses across the tracks to keep traffic moving.
 * The two tracks visible are #2 (far side on the 360° camera, near side on the static cameras) and #3. Track #1 used to be a siding in the Ashland station, but it was removed decades ago. The eastern lane of Center Street now occupies this space. Both tracks are bi-directional, thus used in both directions.
 * Ashland is a quiet zone. Therefore trains do not use their horns, except when something is on the tracks.
 * There is a speed limit of 35 mph through Ashland. At night the limit used to be 45 mph, but this was reduced in early 2018.
 * 20 Amtrak trains pass Ashland Monday through Friday, 19 on weekend days.
 * The Amtrak station can be seen on the North camera just west of the tracks. It is the building with the triangular roof.
 * Half of the daily Amtrak trains stop at the Ashland Amtrak station. These trains are Northeast Regional trains. Long-distance trains do not stop at the Ashland station.
 * Over 30 different Amtrak trains pass Ashland during the course of a week. The times in the tables below are scheduled times. Trains may be early or late. To determine the current or actual time for a train, you can use various Amtrak trackers:
 * https://asm.transitdocs.com/map
 * https://www.amtrak.com/track-your-train.html
 * http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/status/StatusMaps/
 * Next Amtrak stations are Fredericksburg, Virginia to the north, and Richmond, Virginia (Staples Mill Rd Station) to the south.
 * The toy train store visible on the South camera can be visited online: http://www.trainandtoystore.com/

Historical information
The railroad through modern Ashland was opened by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad on January 23, 1837 from Richmond to Fredericksburg. It was extended to Aquia Creek at the Potomac River on September 30, 1842, where passengers to Washington had to board a boat to continue their journey. On May 1, 1872 a new branch line was opened from Brooke to Quantico, and the old line from Brooke to Aquia Creek was abandoned at the same date. Two months later, on July 2, the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad opened their main line from Alexandria to Quantico, linking Richmond and Alexandria by rails. The bridge into Washington DC was opened during the following year. Meanwhile, Ashland was developed as a resort with a racetrack in the 1840s by the railroad company, and officially incorporated as a town on February 19, 1858. The railroad station was opened not long thereafter. The original station building was replaced in 1923 by the current building visible on the North camera.

See also Ashland VA in 1913.

Amtrak information
The Amtrak schedule for the line through Ashland can be found at https://www.amtrak.com/timetables.html (look for the schedule named Northeast Corridor 3).

Ashland Amtrak trains by the time at Ashland
Times of trains that do not stop in Ashland are shown in Italics and are approximate passing times. Trains may pass earlier than at times shown in the table. Times for other trains are scheduled departure times. Arrival of these trains might be earlier.

CSX information
CSX Transportation (reporting mark CSXT) runs freight trains through Ashland and owns the tracks. There is no published schedule for CSX trains. Regular daily trains mostly have symbols with the letter Q. Normally southbound Q trains have odd numbers, whereas northbound Q trains have even numbers at Ashland. Q135/136 are an exception, as Q136 runs south and Q135 (and on some days L135) runs north.

Grain trains (loaded trains with G symbols, empty trains with V symbols) and coal trains (loaded trains southbound, with N symbols, empty trains northbound, with E symbols) may run as needed. Some run fairly frequently, but are still not predictable. For corresponding pairs of grain and coal trains, the same number is often used for both directions and they only differ by the letter used in the symbol. Rarely, (loaded) coal trains with T symbols will pass Ashland. Work trains (with W symbols) and local trains (with D symbols) might pass as well.

For CSX, Amtrak trains - like all passenger trains -, have P symbols with the Amtrak train number as their number part, so the Auto Train is P052/P053, and so on. There is one exception to this, for Amtrak 65 is running as P077 on the CSX network.

Some of the CSX trains haul trash from New York City to dump sites in the Carolinas. The orange trash cars (Q409/Q410) come from Queens and are moved on barges to Staten Island where they "board" the CSX train. The green trash cars (Q438/Q439) originate in the Bronx and go up north to Albany NY along the east side of the Hudson River and then start their journey south (then along the west side of the Hudson River).