The Tidewater and Western Railroad carried freight and passengers along a route from Farmville, Virginia to Bermuda Hundred.

[5][6] A magazine notice for renting the Turkey Island Plantation advertised that the farm is near the Tobaccoville station of the Tidewater and Western Railroad which would help the farmer get dairy products to market.

The owners hoped that the line would ship products all the way to Chester, Virginia and docks at Bermuda Hundred to make the railroad profitable.

Wealthy investors in Cumberland, where much of the tracks lay, were unwilling to purchase all shares at less than the value of all of the property owned by the company because the Tidewater and Western Railroad had not been able to pay a dividend after taxes.

[11] In 1917, two attempts at stating industries were made which could have saved the Tidewater and Western Railroad by giving it something to haul.

[12] Also in 1917, the Tidewater Oil and Gas Company drilled an exploratory hole over 1500 feet deep in the Fork Swamp area in the Willis River.

The French Government then bought the railroad's portable assets from the receiver for the World War I effort.

The rails, ties and cars other than a few engines were driven up the docks at Bermuda Hundred and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean.

[15] The Tidewater and Western extended from Farmville to Mosley, where it crossed the Southern, to Chester, where it crossed the Atlantic Coast Line and the Richmond Trolley, all the way to Bermuda Hundred where goods could be shipped or received by boat to and from New York, Boston or across the Atlantic to Europe.

The second map, shown in the references section, shows more detail around Chester, including the tracks to Bermuda Hundred.