B-Line (Norfolk Southern)

This article is about a US rail line in Virginia. For the rail route in Indiana, United States, see Bee Line Railroad.

The B-Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The line runs from Manassas west to Front Royal and Strasburg^[1] along a former Southern Railway line, although no trains serve the section of the line from Front Royal to Strasburg, as the last customer closed its doors in 2020, after which the line was officially designated "out of service." The Strasburg section will now possibly be turned into a rail-trail. Its east end is at the Washington District, and it crosses the Hagerstown District at Front Royal. Since the 1999 breakup of Conrail, when Norfolk Southern acquired the Lurgan Branch from the north end of the Hagerstown District into Pennsylvania, the B-Line east of Front Royal has been a major connection, allowing traffic on the Washington District to bypass Washington, D.C. The B-Line supports mainly intermodal and manifest trains, although beginning in late 2018, Norfolk Southern began running rerouted coal unit trains on it more frequently than before.

Trains That Run Through The B-LINE Normally

Train Symbol	Direction
12R	Westbound
13R	Eastbound
27A	Eastbound
28R	Westbound
24X	Westbound
25A	Eastbound
288	Westbound
289	Eastbound
275	Eastbound
274	Westbound

A Norfolk Southern merchandise freight passes through Markham on the B-Line in 2011.

History

The Manassas Gap Railroad opened in 1854 from Manassas to Strasburg.^[2] It became part of the Southern Railway and Norfolk Southern through leases and mergers.

References

1. the NS B-Line
2. "Map of the Manassas Gap Railroad and its extensions; September, 1855". Library of Congress. Retrieved 7 December 2020.