Station Number: 103
Code Number: 0154
Tel. Calls: HA
Hanover is the seat of Hanover County. Unlike Louisa, there was never a village
at Hanover Courthouse until the railroad built a station about 1 mile to the
southwest. There was some building near the depot; at one time there were a couple of
stores and a bar nearby. Right after completion of the Louisa Railroad’s
extension to Richmond, Hanover was the only depot between Hanover Junction (now
Doswell) and Richmond. On May 27, 1862, Confederate troops attempting to stop the
U.S. army from cutting the railroad were defeated near here. The following year, on
May 4, U.S. troops under General Stoneman burned the Hanover depot and several
railroad cars, all full of supplies for the rebel army.
The 1937 Side Track Record listed 3 sidings in Hanover. The first was a
3339' passing siding (track 826) located across the main from the station. To the east of the
station building was a 432' siding (track 828) for a stock pen and to the west was a 1281' house
and commercial track (track 827). In September, 1947, the mainline between mileposts 99 and 103 was
realigned and this changed the tracks at Hanover. The mainline moved to the south and the passing
siding moved to the north (compare the 1937 and 1963 maps below to see the change). This mainline
realignment also led to the retirement of bridge 1021. Hanover still had an agent 1948, but the
stock pen was retired in July of that year. In the 1950 Industrial Directory, the C&O
listed a team track with a capacity of 8 cars. It served the Aylett Lumber Co. and the G. I. Luck
coal yard. Hanover retained its agency until February 9, 1971. At that time, Hanover became a non-agency
station for the handling of car-load freight only. The station and platform were retired in 1975 and
tracks 826 and 827 in the l990’s.
Photos
This is the C&O depot in Hanover in October of 1972. It was believed to
have been demolished in 1974, but that turns out not to be the case (see below).
(Photo by Thomas W. Dixon, Jr. Used with permission.)
Jesse Smith snapped a photo of Hanover depot from an Amtrak Vista-Dome car in June of 1973.
(Photo by Jesse Smith. Used with permission.)
This is Hanover depot building as it appeared in 2001. According to Jack Bruce
a former member of the Hanover County Board of Supervisors dismantled the depot and
reconstructed it as his home. Jack writes, “I spoke with [him] this evening and
he confirmed that with the exception of putting a basement under the freighthouse end
of the station (because the lay of the land would accommodate such a feature) and the
placement of a deck at the freighthouse door, the structure was largely reconstructed
as he found it.” Thanks for the info, Jack. (November, 2001 photo by Larry Z. Daily).
These three images were taken on September 25, 1977 at the Hanover station site. According to the Chessie Steam Special
page, this photo shows one of the Chessie Steam Special trains. This train, with 2 Western Maryland F7’s on the head end, was a one-way
trip from Newport News to Baltimore via Gordonsville. Other shots of this train can be seen on the Louisa
and Mineral pages. (All three photos by James C. Herold. From slides in the collection of Larry Z. Daily)
[NEW] I picked this slide up in an eBay auction. No location was written on the slide frame,
but the eBay seller said that it was in Virginia. Gary Smith said that it looks a lot like
the Route 54 grade crossing in Hanover County. After checking out that crossing on
Google, I have to agree. (Photographer unknown. From a slide in the collection of Larry Z. Daily.)
Map
This map was 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
