| The CHW has been owned by the N&W since the early 1950s and by Norfolk Southern since the N&W/Southern merger but it is still officially listed as an indepedent railroad owned by the NS - it no longer has its own locomotives anymore - they use NS locomotives. That is probably only of interest to people interested in corporate law and restrictions on railroad ownership. I have no idea why N&W didn't take over the CHW rather than keeping it "independent" - in the 1950s, Harrisonburg had competitive rail service from the Southern - it may well have remained indepdent because of the Chesapeake & Ohio connection in Staunton (formerly Valley Railroad, later B&O purchased by the Chesapeake Western in the 1940s). Because the B&O line was cut off from the rest of the B&O line, they had trackage rights over Southern - Southern may have had trackage rights to Staunton over the CHW line or would have had their connection to the C&O cut off. That may well have led to problems with the ICC at the time which led the CHW to remain an independent railroad owned by the N&W. |