Vienna Centennial Park

Vienna's railroad history began in 1859 when the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad started passenger, mail, and freight service to the town, and it continued through a series of changes as the line was renamed the Washington & Ohio in 1870, became part of the Southern Railway System in 1894, added hourly electric trolley service between Vienna and Washington, D.C., in 1904, became the Washington & Old Dominion Railway in 1912 with new electric passenger cars and a post office car for sorting and postmarking mail en route, replaced steam locomotives with electric engines in 1919, and became the W&OD Railroad in 1936. Passenger service was suspended in 1941 until after World War II, ended in Vienna on May 30, 1951, and freight service continued until 1968, after which Virginia Power purchased the railroad right-of-way and allowed development of the W&OD Regional Trail. Vienna also became the site of the first railroad battle in history on June 17, 1861, when the 1st Ohio Regiment, a Union force of 29 officers and 668 men under Brigadier General Robert Schenck, rode a work train from Alexandria to Vienna to install telegraph lines, while the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, a Confederate force of more than 600 men with two six-pounder light cannon under Colonel Maxey Gregg, prepared an ambush near what is now the Vienna Community Center and Park Street; after the train's whistle warned the Confederates, the first volley sent Union troops from the cars into nearby woods, the engineer uncoupled the engine and passenger car and retreated to Alexandria, and the Union force withdrew on foot with several wounded and six dead. The old Vienna railroad station stands near Vienna Centennial Park and serves as headquarters for the Northern Virginia Model Railroaders, and Vienna's caboose, built in 1948 and weighing more than 30 tons, was donated after Virginia repealed laws requiring manned cabooses, renamed W&OD Caboose #503, placed within the W&OD Regional Trail right-of-way through permission from Virginia Power and the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, and dedicated on September 15, 1990, as part of a community project tied to Vienna's Centennial celebration.

Vienna, Virginia · United States