The Cary Plantation sprawled over thousands of acres along the banks of the Rivanna River, encompassing fertile bottomland where tobacco and other crops were grown.

Wilson Miles Cary moved his family to his Fluvanna plantation, Carysbrook, in 1777 because the British were too close to his Williamsburg home.

The train traveled from Strathmore Yard on the James River, to Cohasset, Carysbrook, Palmyra, Troy and on to Gordonsville or Charlottesville.

This branch route was built to handle cargo that would have otherwise been too tall or wide to fit through the tunnels that crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains between Charlottesville and Waynesboro.

Coal destined for Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia was sent down the James River Line to the southern junction of the route at Strathmore Yard, near Bremo Bluff.

At one point there were a few small businesses surrounding the railroad tracks in Carysbrook to include a station, grocery store and post office.