The story of the Dismal Swamp Railroad began on February 28th, 1899, when three men from Southeastern Virginia incorporated a common carrier steam powered railroad that was to be constructed from a point on the Elizabeth River near Chesapeake, Virginia, to somewhere on the North Carolina state line. The three incorporators, Gustavus Milhiser, Charles R. Johnson, and T. K. Parrish were all lumbermen from around the Norfolk area with Gustavus being the president of the influential Richmond Cedar Works headquartered in Richmond.

On October 12th, 1898, Before the railroad was officially incorporated, the same three individuals purchased the corporate assets of the Norfolk & Camden Railroad which itself was incorporated in 1892 in Virginia and in 1895 in North Carolina. This railroad operated around 2 miles of 42" inch track south of Chesapeake, Virginia, near the town of Great Bridge, Virginia. with the acquisition of this company, the railroad inherited one locomotive and an unknown amount of log cars. The Norfolk & Camden Railroad was a common carrier railroad that operated for the sole purpose of extracting lumber from south of Chesapeake, Virginia, but was never profitable.

similarly to the Norfolk & Camden Railroad, the new Dismal Swamp Railroad was to be used to haul lumber trains from the Dismal Swamp and surrounding areas for processing. Owned entirely by the Richmond Cedar Works, the railroad was to transport cut timber to a sawmill located at the northern terminus adjacent to the Elizabeth River near Chesapeake. This location was named Camden Mills presumably after the aforementioned predecessor railroad which also operated a sawmill, albeit much smaller, at this same location.

As construction of the sawmill began, so did an extension of the original Norfolk & Camden line southward to the town of Benefit, Virginia. Benefit was 100% a company town which housed the Richmond Cedar Work's laborers. The railroad's maintenance facilities were also located there until 1920, when the shops were consolidated with the Richmond Cedar Work's own mill railroad at Camden Mills. Surprisingly, the engine house at Benefit survived until 1936 when it was demolished.

As the railroad continued to expand to access more timber, the railroad's directors decided that more motive power was necessary. This in turn, caused incorporator Charles R. Johnson to transport a locomotive from his own personal lumber venture for use on the railroad. Named the "Sue", this locomotive was numbered #2 and was a dinky 0-4-2T locomotive built by the Burnham, Williams & Company in February of 1895. Due to the fact that this locomotive was numbered #2 and was the second locomotive to be used on the road, I believe that the locomotive inherited from the Norfolk & Camden Railroad was numbered #1.

The 35 mile main line was completed sometime in the 1910's and stretched from Camden Mills, Virginia, to the small village of Lynch's, North Carolina. At Lynch's, the Richmond Cedar Works constructed a much smaller sawmill to handle some of the lumber felled adjacent to this new mill. After the mainline was abandoned and torn up in 1941, a small amount of standing timber was left on land owned by the Richmond Cedar Works near Lynch's, and still needed to be cut and transported. This orphaned stretch of track was handled by Vulcan Iron Works Mogul #6 to bring the cut logs to Lynch's where they would be sent by truck to Camden Mills. #6 was presumably scrapped when the last of the timber was cut in the 1940's.

According to the original charter of the railroad, the company was listed as a common carrier and so had to provide passenger service if desired along the line. The railroad did end up providing daily passenger service to the locals between Camden Mills, Virginia, and Lynch's, North Carolina, with stops at Benefit, Virginia, and Angels Crossing, Virginia. This train consisting of an ancient flat car and a primitive passenger car operated daily until 1939. The railroad was entirely freight oriented and so spent little to no time or money to purchase any fancy passenger equipment. All they did was crudely construct an old boxcar with wooden seats and holes in the walls for windows. It was enough, however to warrant the use of this primitive car for passenger use for almost twenty years.

Before any ecological protective agencies were created by the Federal and State Government, the area in and around the Great Dismal Swamp was a hive for logging operations. The Dismal Swamp Railroad operated many spur lines off their mainline on the eastern side of the swamp to harvest Juniper and Cyprus logs. Other companies that were known to have lumber tracts in the swamp were the Camp Manufacturing Company of Franklin, Virginia, the John L. Roper Lumber Company which operated a mill in South Mills, North Carolina, the Moses R. White Lumber Company which was one of the last railroad utilizing lumber operations in the swamp, and finally the Gay Manufacturing Company which owned the common carrier Suffolk & Carolina Railway.

Based on historic aerials that I have seen from the 1950's, it seems that the Dismal Swamp Railroad constructed a branch line in a southwestern direction from the southern tip of the swamp to connect with the Norfolk & Southern Railway's Elizabeth City Branch at the town of Sandy Crossing, North Carolina. The Norfolk & Southern line stretched from Beckford Junction, North Carolina, to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and was originally constructed by the Suffolk & Carolina Railway as 42" inch gauge. When the Dismal Swamp Railroad's branch was completed to Sandy Crossing, the Suffolk & Carolina had standardized and become part of the Norfolk & Southern Railway system. The Elizabeth City branch lasted only four years after the Dismal Swamp's tracks were pulled up and was ripped up in 1945 presumably for the war effort.

Interestingly, while the Richmond Cedar Works utilized the Dismal Swamp Railroad to haul lumber to the mills from deep inside the swamp, the company also owned another railroad which hauled processed planks and boards to an interchange with the Elizabeth River Railroad, later the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line. This railroad was a private, industrial railroad that operated from Camden Mills into Chesapeake to secure a necessary connection for nationwide lumber shipments. For easy interchangeability, the Richmond Cedar Works constructed this railroad as standard gauge and originally utilized small saddle tank locomotives, and later small Plymouth switchers. This operation continued until the end of the mill in 1950. Even with the abandonment of this minuscule line 70 years ago, many of the bridges still exist and can be seen along the Elizabeth River so next time you're on a cruise in Chesapeake, keep your eyes peeled. You never know what you may see!

As the amount of harvest able full grown trees began to diminish on the Richmond Cedar Work's properties throughout the Dismal Swamp in the late 1930's, the railroad was used less and less as was all physical assets of the company. As many could predict with the depletion of the Richmond Cedar Work's main commodity, the company began to struggle financially and finally declared bankruptcy in 1941. To prevent the complete liquidation of the company, the state appointed receivers to merge the Richmond Cedar Works with the Dismal Swamp Railroad to form a new enterprise called the Dismal Swamp Corporation. This company continued to use trucks to haul cut lumber to the Camden Mills sawmill until finally closing it's doors permanently in 1950.

If you were to walk along the original Right of Way today, there would be no indication of what activity was occurring at the same location over 90 years ago. Both sawmills are gone, the last of the 42" inch gauge track was pulled up on November 27th, 1941, and all of the locomotives are now fence posts and bean cans. All we have to remember this once wealthy enterprise are the photos and stories left behind of one of the great lumber companies of the south.

Corporate History

Created: Incorporated on Febraury 28, 1899.

Dissolved: Consolidated with the Richmond Cedar Works to form the Dismal Swamp Corporation in 1941.

Start Point: Camden Mills, VA

End Point: Lynch's, NC (Also known as Lynch's Crossing, NC).

Other Lines:

• Branch line from in the Great Dismal Swamp to Sandy Crossing, NC.

• Multiple logging spurs in the Great Dismal Swamp

• Logging spur nine miles south and east of Lynch's

Interchanges:

• Richmond Cedar Works Railroad at Camden Mills, VA

• Norfolk & Southern Railroad at Sandy Crossing, NC

Gauge: 42" Gauge (3'6" Gauge)

Total Length: 35 Miles (Mainline)

Headquarters: Camden Mills, VA

Owners:

• Gustavus Milhiser, Charles. R. Johnson, and T. K. Parish (Incorporators)

• Richmond Cedar Works (1899-1941)

Predecessors:

• Norfolk & Camden Railroad (Assests acquired on October 12, 1898, by the railroad's incorporators.)

Successors:

• Richmond Cedar Works (1941) (Owned by the Dismal Swamp Corporation which merged the railroad company with the logging company.) (Line was abandoned from Lynch's northward and the last steel was removed on November 27, 1941.) (The spur line south and east of Lynch's continued to be served by the railroad into the 1940s because the lumber tract that needed to be lumbered was inaccessible to roads. Vulcan 2-6-0 #6 was used on this orphaned piece of track and transported the cut logs to Lynch's where they would be picked up by trucks and transported to Camden Mills.)

• NOTE: Locomotive Specifics such as Driver Diameter, Cylinder Dimensions, and Engine Weight are to be taken with a grain as salt and NOT be taken for fact. I do the best I can in compiling rosters, but sometimes information just can't be confirmed without original primary source documents from the locomotive manufacturers. - Nick Jobe

Baldwin Consolidation 2nd #1 with a train of juniper logs at the Richmond Cedar Work's Camden Mills, Virginia, sawmill in the 1930s. #1 was originally built for the Greenleaf-Johnson Lumber Company which owned lumber tracts in the Great Dismal Swamp and around Norfolk, Virginia, in the early 20th Century.

Another photograph of Baldwin 2-8-0 2nd #1 at the Richmond Cedar Work's Camden Mills, Virginia, sawmill in the 1930's. The sawmill at Camden Mills can easily be identified by it's three tall smokestacks and two smaller smokestacks. Unlike the first photograph of this locomotive, this photo appears to show the 2nd #1 still in service as it is coupled to a log train and the boiler has yet to be capped.

Burnham, Williams & Company Mogul #3 is tied up with a train of juniper logs at the Richmond Cedar Work's Camden Mills, Virginia, sawmill in July of 1936. #3 spent it's entire life working in the Dismal Swamp, first for the Dismal Swamp Railroad and later, the Richmond Cedar Works when the railroad and logging company were consolidated around 1941.

Long since retired, 2-6-0 #3 sits in the deadline at Camden Mills, Virginia, on Sunday, August 29th, 1948. Note the faded but legible "D S Corp" lettering on the side of the tender. This was the last livery any of the Dismal Swamp Railroad's locomotives had before the end. It's quite interesting that the locomotive was still largely in one piece at this date as the railroad had been abandoned some 7 years before this photo was taken. I can't think of any reason the locomotive was kept this late except that maybe the Richmond Cedar Works didn't have the capital to spend on scrapping or shipping out the engine.

Vulcan Iron Works Mogul #6 tied up with the passenger train at Benefit, Virginia, in July of 1936. Because the Dismal Swamp Railroad was a common carrier, the railroad had to haul both freight and passenger trains. The passenger train usually consisted of a flat car and a very primitive passenger car constructed from a boxcar. The railroad finally ended passenger service in 1939.

Here's a second photograph of Vulcan Iron Works 2-6-0 #6, however this time it's at Camden Mills, Virginia, in 1939. Notice the lack of the sand box which was previously located on top of the plow of the locomotive. The reason for the oddly placed sand compartment was because for the first thirty years of operation, the Dismal Swamp Railroad hauled many trains in and out of the Great Dismal Swamp itself and of course the name wouldn't make sense if the land wasn't almost always drenched year round. This led to some aquatic experiences for the engineers who with some entrepreneur like thinking decided that the best way for the locomotive to gain traction when a flood was occurring was to manually shovel it in front of the engine and hope some sticks on the rails. This apparently worked and so all of the locomotives that operated into the swamps were equipped with a sand box on the plow. Anyway, when this photograph was taken, the lumber operations were occurring much further south beyond the swamp and so the sand boxes were no longer needed.

Here is a black and white photograph displaying what appears to be Dismal Swamp Railroad #5 "Guinea" taken at Camden Mills, Virginia, in 1938. The "Guinea", as it was affectionately named, was a very early example of a gasoline powered 0-4-0 switcher and was probably used to switch cars around the Richmond Cedar Works Camden Mill's multiple facilities. Also, note the machinery on the flatcar being hauled by #5. It may be the remains of standard gauged Lima Shay #12!