Windsor Flag Stop (1872-1890) (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.

WINDSOR FLAG STOP: 1872-1890

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.

Richard Windsor had three acres of land condemned on February 20, 1871 for the railroad right-of-way. His property would host a flag stop named Windsor. The waiting shelter was located on the southern side of the track approximately 800 feet east of the present-day Franconia-Springfield train platform. The old roadbed cut is still visible near the Franconia-Springfield Parkway overpass. Access to the stop was by paths leading through the present-day Windsor Estates and Springfield Forest neighborhoods.

Richard Windsor was the proprietor of the Hayfield Plantation between 1860 and 1874. The property name comes from George Washington, who originally acquired the property in 1761 and used it to grow hay to feed his livestock on his farms. Following his return home from the Revolutionary War, he sold the property to his cousin and Mount Vernon plantation manager, Lund Washington, who built the Hayfield manor house and outbuildings on the property.

The Hayfield house stood on the corner of what are today Hayfield Road and Bing Court until it burned down in a fire in 1917. Hayfield owner William Clarke was responsible in 1874 for building the double-octagon, or sixteen-sided barn. It was a replica of the one built by George Washington, and remained a community fixture until it too burned down in a 1967 arson fire.

Service to the Windsor flag stop ended in 1890 after only eighteen years of service due to a lack of passenger traffic. The growth of nearby Franconia Station is likely the cause.