page_title: Chesterfield Railroad
section_title: Outmoded by steam railroad competition 1850-1851
hierarchical_section_title: Chesterfield Railroad / History / Outmoded by steam railroad competition 1850-1851
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Chesterfield County, Virginia 1888 (cropped to Manchester and Southside)
context_page_description: The Chesterfield Railroad was located in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was a 13-mile long mule-and-gravity powered line that connected the Midlothian coal mines with wharves that were located at the head of navigation on the James River just below the Fall Line at Manchester. It began operating in 1831 as Virginia's first common carrier railroad.
  Although it was dismantled before the American Civil War after being supplanted by the steam-powered Richmond and Danville Railroad, several portions of the embankments for the roadbed are extant in Chesterfield County near present-day Midlothian Turnpike.
context_section_description: In 1850, the new steam-driven Richmond and Danville Railroad began operation to Coalfield Station (later renamed Midlothian). Although unsuccessful lawsuits followed, the Chesterfield Railroad was quickly supplanted by the competition. It filed its last report with the Virginia Board of Public Works in 1851. With permission from the state legislature, the Chesterfield Railroad was dismantled before the American Civil War.
caption: While the Chesterfield Railroad was founded to move coal to Richmond 13 miles (21 km) to the East, the Richmond and Danville railroad replaced it in the 1850s.
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