Franconia Railroad Station (1904-1953) (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the station was located. No visible remains exist.


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

GRAVEL PIT SIDING: 1890-1903
FRANCONIA STATION: 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.

Robert Rollins Fowle had six acres condemned by the railroad company on January 20, 1871, but also deeded over another twelve acres on October 18 of the same year to the railroad in exchange for a station to be constructed on his property, named Franconia after the "Frankhonia Farm" it was built on. The origin of the name Franconia is still debated. There are two theories. Firstly, oral history says the name comes from the family of Joseph Broders, who named Frankhonia Farm in 1858 after the Franconia region of Germany after a trip through Prussia. Secondly, researchers claim that William Fowle named the farm in 1860 after the town of Franconia in New Hampshire to honor his father's memory. Anyone with additional information to confirm either of these theories is highly encouraged to contact the Franconia Museum!

William Fowle's 191-acre Frankhonia Farm was located on Potter's Lane off Old Franconia Road, originally purchased from Joseph Broders of neighboring Oak Grove Plantation. Robert Fowle was born in 1832 and educated in Harvard. During the American Civil War, he operated in several different Confederate units including the Sixth Virginia Cavalry, Kemper's Alexandria Artillery and the Second Virginia Cavalry. After the war, he married Barbara Sanders and managed the Frankhonia Farm from his home until his death in 1873.

Franconia Station was located on the eastern side of the track approximately 800 feet south of Franconia Road across from present-day Fleet Drive near Tripps Way in the Greenwood subdivision. The station house was actually a converted family home. The first floor played host to the railroad office and the Garfield Post Office in its early years, while the second floor housed the family of a railroad worker, normally the head of that section of the railroad. The roadside history marker about the station is located in the parking lot of the Franconia Governmental Center of Franconia Road.

Worker safety was always a concern around trains in the early years. In 1876, flagman Michael Grimes attempted to get off a train while in motion at Franconia Station and had his toes crushed. Another problem would never go away: in a geological oddity, Franconia Road would be located at the peak of a five-mile long hill located at 250 feet above sea level, the highest point on the entire railroad line between Washington and Richmond. For perspective, Alexandria's Union Station is only thirty feet above sea level. The average gradient is approximately 0.8 ascending southbound into Franconia Station from the current-day Telegraph Road overpass and 0.6 ascending northbound into the station from Pohick Creek.

Named the "Franconia Hill" or the "Franconia Grade," the steep grade is a major obstacle to freight train operations, even into the present day. Freight trains will crawl up the hill at less than fifteen miles per hour, resulting in a transit time up the hill in excess of twenty to thirty minutes. This includes the time it takes the rear of a long freight train to clear the hill, and reduces valuable track capacity. If a train stalled on the hill, the crew could wait for a push from another train or they could cut the train into two halves and take the front end to the next siding, then return for the rest of the cars.

In 1890, Franconia Station would expand its services to include a second location a half-mile north of the station house. It would feature just a small industrial siding to serve the gravel pit operations that were occurring in the area of today's Grove Point Park, formerly called the Franconia District Park. Gravel pits were quickly becoming a feature of the surrounding neighborhood. Gravel from Franconia would see use in the construction of many local roadways and airports. The siding was located on the eastern side of the track approximately 800 feet north of Franconia Road across from what is today Marcy Court.

The Richmond-Washington Company incorporated on September 5, 1901 as a holding company owning both the RF&P Railroad and the Washington Southern Railway. Freight traffic over the new Richmond-Washington Line increased quickly, and the train dispatchers running the show from Richmond found that the single track they had was inadequate for the number of trains they wanted to run. The number of trains allowed on a single track at the same time is severely limited because trains cannot run too close to each other without risking a collision. For this reason, they added a second track along the entire line between Richmond and Washington in a process called "double tracking." They also realigned the tracks onto the course they follow to the present day during this four-year construction project between 1903 and 1907. They eliminated or smoothed out sharp curves and reduced hills in grade, including lowering the peak of Franconia Hill underneath Franconia Road by a staggering twenty feet. You can still see this massive cut today by looking down at the railroad from Franconia Road along Fleet Drive. They put almost the entire line of track in a new location between Quantico and Alexandria, all in an effort to speed up transit times along the line.

As noted earlier, Franconia Station was a two-story frame house that had served as part railroad depot and part family home for the Hutchinson family. The home burned to the ground in an accidental fire in December of 1903, and the family did make it out safely. A new station house was quickly built a half-mile north of its original location on a site that, conveniently, already came with a prepared siding used to serve the area's numerous gravel pit operations.

The station house was located on the eastern side of the track approximately 800 feet north of Franconia Road across from what is today Marcy Court. Franconia Station would greatly expand its presence there to house an animal pen, small freight house, telegraph office and several railroad worker homes and sheds for equipment. It would also feature a thriving "team track," an extra spur line that the railroad company would park boxcars on for the public to use. It saw use by farmers and merchants in the Franconia area who could personally load or unload items that had arrived by train and deliver them to locals.

Not all went smoothly during the double tracking operations. A terrific explosion occurred near Franconia Road that shook houses for miles, blew out glass from windowpanes and spooked residents who heard it as far away as Arlington and Fairfax City. At 1:30 in the morning on Saturday, May 21, 1904, a railroad contractor working for the Lane Brothers and Jones Company was carrying a lighted lamp as he walked into a shed where a large quantity of gasoline and dynamite was stored. As he entered, the flame from the lamp ignited the gasoline fumes, which flared up all around him.

He immediately turned and ran out the door. His escape was not a moment too soon, as the dynamite went off with a mighty explosion reducing the small building to lethal splinters of wood. Shockingly, no injuries occurred in the contractor's camp, as the shed was thankfully located at some distance from the sleeping workers. Many residents stated it to be the largest explosion ever to hit Fairfax County, but other residents also remembered the deadly explosion of the gunpowder bunker at Fort Lyon in the Huntington neighborhood forty years earlier.

In addition, a lawsuit arising from the track work for the Washington Southern Railway would go before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. On the evening of November 29, 1904, as Irish contractor named Domingo Glaria was departing his worksite at Franconia Station. The home that he shared with several other Irish railroad workers lay one mile to the west near what is today John Lewis High School in Springfield. It was a foggy evening, and a large dirt embankment blocked Glaria's view of the tracks. When he stepped onto the track to walk across, passing express train number 403 ran over his leg. Doctors in Alexandria were unable to save his leg, which required amputation above the knee. Glaria claimed the train was travelling above the speed limit when he was crossing over the track and did not receive any warning from the train. His lawsuit accused the railroad company of negligence and asked for reparations of $25,000 for his personal injuries. Taking into account inflation over time, that is the equivalent of over a half million dollars today. The court initially ruled in favor of Mr. Glaria, but later overturned the decision on appeal in the year 1908.

Franconia Station also played host to one of the most daring train robberies to hit the American east coast. The train involved was the "Florida Flyer," the Atlantic Coast Line's train number 61 running regular service from New York City to Jacksonville, Florida. At approximately ten o'clock on Thursday evening, February 18, 1915, two masked men boarded the train while it was in motion southbound at Alexandria's Potomac Yard. They clung to an iron step and guardrail that attach to the side of the express car and rode along there. After passing the Lunt flag stop near South Van Dorn Street, the two men gained entry to the express car by breaking through the glass window of the car doors on both ends. The men threatened the manager of the car, A. Y. Chambliss, with revolvers if he did not open the door for them to enter.

Chambliss yelled out loudly for his assistant, M. M. Williams, but Williams had taken ill and was sleeping. Under threat of death, Chambliss opened the car doors at both ends for the men. They overpowered Chambliss and took his revolver and cash from his wallet. Chambliss handed over his keys, but when he offered to open the safe for the robbers, they refused him curtly. When the keys that Chambliss provided all failed to open the safe, the men instead smashed a toolbox, took out a fire axe and started hacking unsuccessfully at the top of the safe.

Several attempts were made by the men to open the safe, including trying to blow it open with a small amount of explosives. When the safe still withstood all they could throw at it, the masked men picked up the safe, weighing a staggering 250 pounds, and tossed it off the rear of the train while the train was slowing down to pass Franconia Station. The robbers locked Chambliss and Williams inside the rail car and made their escape, stealing two cars near the station. The robbery went undiscovered until the train pulled in at the end of the line at Byrd Street Station in Richmond. This was even odder because the train had made its usual layover of several minutes in Fredericksburg. In fact, the flagman, W. F. Robertson and the train conductor, James Southward had walked along the length of the train to see that all was well, and they saw no suspicious sign and no cry for help came from the locked express car.

The first sign of trouble came when a Southern Express agent in Richmond went to enter the car to pick up papers from the safe. He found neither Chambliss nor Williams bound or gagged in any way, and wondered why they did not immediately sound an alarm after the robbers had departed the train. The only theory authorities had was that the men, so frightened by the experience, never thought to report it. "I am not in denial," Chambliss supposedly said. Chambliss and Williams gave a hurried statement to Richmond authorities, but the train waits for no one. Chambliss had to finish the express run to Jacksonville, Florida, after which he returned to Washington to assist in the robbery investigation.

The railroad company reported later that the safe was not carrying anything of value at the time of the robbery, just seventeen dollars in cash, a spare revolver and some papers. What the robbers apparently did not know was that large shipments of valuables or deposits for large banks often moved by the morning train, not the evening one. In fact, the morning express train just twelve hours earlier had carried $73,000 in cash along the same route. In today's money, that was equivalent to over two million dollars according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The famed Pinkerton National Detective Agency took up the case, suspecting that construction workers near Accotink Creek were involved in the heist. However, the authorities never caught the two masked men.

Not every incident had a horrible ending. In 1943, disaster nearly struck in Franconia but for the heroism of Howard E. Blunt, a 26-year-old RF&P Railroad fireman from Ashland, Virginia. Mr. Blunt prevented a disastrous wreck of the Champion Train carrying passengers from Miami, Florida and saved the life of Joe Hulcher, his engineer. According to the Washington Times-Herald news article:

"Blunt crawled blindly through a cab thick with steam and flaming coals as the results of a burst boiler flue. He set the emergency brakes at the cost of badly burned hands. The Washington and New York train ground to a stop on a long grade six miles south of Alexandria. Both Blunt and Hulcher were brought a mile down the track on a hand car and rushed to Alexandria in an ambulance awaiting them. Blunt was released from the hospital after three days, although burns on one hand require it to be carried in a sling."