Previously, flour had to be moved by bateaux through the Dismal Swamp Canal or through transshipment to carriage taking longer and paying tolls to get from the Roanoke River to Portsmouth and Norfolk.

[4] An 1848 map showed stations at Stony Creek, Jarrat's, Hicksford, Pleasant Hill, Garysburg, and Weldon.

The company had enough money to replace the rails on an ongoing basis without taking on debt.

Cars were built with heart pine, ash, white oak, poplar, black walnut, and even mahogany.

[5] In 1857, stations were located at Stony Creek, Jarratt's, Belfield, Hicksborough, Pleasant Hill, Garysburg, and Weldon.

[7] The Petersburg Railroad saw much action and destruction during the latter part of the American Civil War.

Ten miles of track and bridges needed to be rebuilt because of damage from the War.

The Federal government of the United States sold them the iron to replace the ten miles of track for $65,000.

[7] During Reconstruction, southern railroads had distant owners who wanted good to pass efficiently through cities.

[12] Twenty years later, in 1886, the railroads in the south were changed to standard gauge on one day in May, allowing point-to-point transportation across the entire east coast.

The readjusters wanted to protect public schools from cuts due to state debt and promised better representation for workers of all races.

Due to non-taxable nature of Petersburg Railroad, the State legislature only renewed the lease for two years from 1891 to 1893.

[1] William T. Walters of Baltimore, Maryland formed a holding company, in 1889, later called the Atlantic Coast Line of five consecutive railroads starting with the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad and connecting all the way to Charleston, South Carolina.

The Petersburg Railroad hired general officers and their clerks; station agents and other station men; enginemen, firemen, conductors and other trainmen to operate the trains; machinists, carpenters and other shopmen to repair the trains; section foremen, switchmen, flagmen, watchmen and other trackmen to run the tracks; telegraph operators and telegraph dispatchers to send and receive telegraphs; and over a hundred other laborers.