Ashcake was located where the C&O mainline crossed Ashcake Road. The road
received its name from a phenomenon that occurred along its length
in Hanover County. Farmers transported huge hogsheads of tobacco along
the road. The gray mud of the road piled up in front of the massive
rolls of tobacco until they finally flopped over into large cake-shaped
piles. When dry, these piles looked like ash cakes, hence the name.
A new depot building was built at Ashcake in November of 1923. In November of 1928, the station
at Ashcake was converted from an agency station to a non-agency station. According to the 1937 Side
Track Record, Ashcake had a 1092' team track (track number 823) across from the station. That track
was retired in December, 1942. In August of 1943 the station building was removed and replaced with a
standard shelter shed. That shed was still shown on the C&O track charts in 1963. It was removed in 1964.
Trivia: On September 4, 1884 a freight train ran off the tracks at
Ashcake. Ten cars piled up and blocked the road nearly the whole night.
Photos
This is the C&O depot in Ashcake circa 1920. (Photo from
the collection of Thomas W. Dixon, Jr. Used with permission.)
This is the C&O’s shelter from Ashcake
as it exists today. The shelter was moved to a location about ½ mile from
its original location. Many thanks to Jack Bruce, who emailed me about the
existence of the shelter and gave me excellent directions to its location.
(November 2001 photo)
This is the original site of the C&O’s Ashcake shelter. (November 2001
photo)
Maps
These maps were prepared from U.S.G.S. topological maps, C&O track charts dated 1963, C&O Side
Track Records dated 1937, a copy of the Side Track Records updated through the 1990’s, and
C&O Valuation maps, also updated through the 1990’s.
Please note that, due to a huge volume of spam coming in on my email account, I’ve had to change my email address.
The new address is lzdaily@nospam.piedmontsub.com (but remove the nospam and the dot before piedmontsub.com).
All materials on this Web site are protected by United States
copyright law. This includes, but is not limited to, articles and graphics. Unless
otherwise indicated, these materials are the property of Larry Z. Daily and may not
be used without prior written permission of Larry Z. Daily
