Colchester Flag Stop (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the flag stop was located. No visible remains exist. The photograph above is an exact replica of what this flag stop looked like, with the standard Pennsylvania Railroad shelter directly abutting the railroad tracks.

A railroad flag stop is a station where a train will only stop if a passenger waiting on the platform waves a flag or gives a signal to the conductor, essentially requesting the train to stop; this is typically used at lightly used stations where trains wouldn't normally stop unless someone needed to get on or off. Many stations would have a box on the platform or station containing a white or green flag that the passenger would wave at the train. If it was a staffed station, the agent or clerk would flag the train. The conductor of the train would acknowledge they had seen the flag by sounding two short whistles.


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Here follows an excerpt from "The Iron Road of Franconia" book about the railroad written by local historian Nathaniel Lee.

COLCHESTER FLAG STOP: 1904-1953

This railroad line through Fairfax County changed its name several times, which continues to be the cause of much confusion for armchair historians. The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company was chartered in 1834, and the line was finished as far as Fredericksburg by 1837. From this point, passengers bound for Washington took a coach to Aquia Creek and then took a steamboat up the river. The line then extended to join the Pennsylvania Railroad's subsidiary line, the Alexandria and Washington Railroad after the Civil War. In 1872, the name was changed to the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad Company. In 1890, the Washington Southern Railway took control of the railroad through Fairfax County, and then folded into the Richmond - Washington Company as a part of the RF&P Railroad in 1920, which is what most people remember. CSX Transportation finally took over operations along the line in 1991. Confused yet? You should be. That's about six name changes over 150 years for the railroad in Fairfax County. Please read the book "The Iron Road of Franconia" for a more detailed explanation of all the changes.

Another flag stop to appear under the new Washington Southern management was Colchester in 1904. The station would be located on the eastern side of the tracks where the former Ox Road (now Furnace Road) crosses under the train tracks. In 1753, Colchester was the first town established in Fairfax County. It prospered for a few years as a trading center and tobacco port. However, silting in the river and a change away from tobacco as a primary crop doomed Colchester as a port town. The final nail in the coffin for Colchester came when the state built a bridge across the Occoquan River that bypassed the ferry at Colchester in favor of its more prosperous neighbor, the Town of Occoquan. The railroad stop lasted for fifty years. Today, only a single private home, the Fairfax Arms, remains as a reminder of this colonial era community.