Lorton Railroad Station (1890-1971) (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact site of the train station. No visible remains exist.


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Here follows an excerpt from "The Iron Road of Franconia" book about the railroad written by local historian Nathaniel Lee.

TELEGRAPH ROAD STATION: 1872-1890
LORTON STATION: 1890-1971

This railroad line through Fairfax County changed its name several times, which continues to be the cause of much confusion for armchair historians. The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company was chartered in 1834, and the line was finished as far as Fredericksburg by 1837. From this point, passengers bound for Washington took a coach to Aquia Creek and then took a steamboat up the river. The line then extended to join the Pennsylvania Railroad's subsidiary line, the Alexandria and Washington Railroad after the Civil War. In 1872, the name was changed to the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad Company. In 1890, the Washington Southern Railway took control of the railroad through Fairfax County, and then folded into the Richmond - Washington Company as a part of the RF&P Railroad in 1920, which is what most people remember. CSX Transportation finally took over operations along the line in 1991. Confused yet? You should be. That's about six name changes over 150 years for the railroad in Fairfax County. Please read the book "The Iron Road of Franconia" for a better explanation of all the changes.

In 1871, Doctor Thomas Nevitt had his property condemned here for the railroad right-of-way and a station to be named "Telegraph Road." The station house was located on the west side of the track approximately 800 feet south of Lorton Road on Gunston Cove Road. Born in 1806, Dr. Nevitt was successful in nearly every venture he set upon. His farm in Lorton brought in a steady income for his wife and several children. He served as a Justice of the Fairfax County Court for 25 years before the Civil War broke out. He licensed as a physician early in the war and quickly became one of the most respected doctors in the county, opening a large practice in Washington after the hostilities ended. Doctor Thomas Nevitt passed on in 1875 at the age of 69. His gravesite is located in the Pohick Church cemetery.

The station gained its name from the road that ran through his property. Route 642, today known as Lorton Road, has an older history. Earlier called Telegraph Road, it saw use as a service road for the first public telegraph line built in the state of Virginia. The Washington-New Orleans Telegraph Company erected the telegraph here in 1847. This particular section stretched from the District of Columbia south to Petersburg, Virginia.

This line played a vitally important role as one of only two telegraph trunk lines that served the South at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Both sides during the conflict sought to destroy each other's modes of communication, and routinely targeted this telegraph line during raids. Some sections of this route still exist as Telegraph Road throughout the South. The roadside historical marker for the telegraph is located at Pohick Church.

When the Washington Southern Railway Company took over operations on the railroad in 1890, big changes were on the way. One notable change under the new management team was that Telegraph Road station would receive a name change to Lorton Station. The station house itself would not move, but the new name reflected the changing character and growth of the surrounding neighborhood. Joseph Plaskett was the man responsible for the name Lorton. He immigrated to the United States from his hometown in Cumberland County, England named Lorton Valley. When he became the first area postmaster in 1875, he named his new post office Lorton Valley to commemorate his former home. Generations of the Plaskett family also served as postmasters at Lorton until the post office closed in 1910. The post office was located at the intersection of Gunston Cove Road and Richmond Highway, less than one mile from the railroad station.

Prior to the construction of Shirley Highway through the middle of Lorton, it was a small but thriving community. The Lorton School started in 1878, and the current brick building dates to 1934. The village of Lorton also played host to general stores operated by the Springman and Tillinghast families, a blacksmith shop and even an attempt at a telephone exchange service. Today, Joseph Plaskett still resides near his beloved home in the Lewis Chapel cemetery. There is a roadside marker erected at the entrance to Lorton Station Town Center to commemorate the Plaskett role in forming the Lorton community.


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Here follows a history of the station as published on the Fairfax County Public Schools website:

The name “Lorton” was given to this part of Fairfax County by Joseph Plaskett in the 1870s. In 1853, Joseph, along with his wife and children, emigrated from England to America. The family briefly settled in New Jersey, and then moved to Fairfax County, Virginia, where Plaskett took up farming. After the American Civil War, he opened a general store in the vicinity of the present-day intersection of Gunston Road and Route 1. In November 1875, Joseph Plaskett became the area’s first postmaster, as he had been instrumental in the establishment of a post office, which was given the name Lorton Valley. This map of Fairfax County, created in 1878, pinpoints the location of the Lorton Valley Post Office, which was located in Plaskett’s store. Joseph Plaskett had chosen the name Lorton Valley in honor of his former home – the village of High Lorton in England. In England, Lorton is the name of a parish in the county of Cumbria. The parish consists of two adjacent villages called Low Lorton and High Lorton. These villages are located in a valley called the Vale of Lorton, in the Lake District National Park in northwestern England. This historical marker, located at the entrance to the Lorton Station Town Center in Fairfax County, has at its base a cornerstone that was originally part of a wall of a farmhouse in Lorton Parish, England. The Town Center takes its name from the first train station serving Lorton, Virginia. Constructed in the early 1870s, the station stood where the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad crossed the old Telegraph Road.
Today, that old Telegraph Road is known as Lorton Road. The train station originally went by the name Telegraph Road Station, and, in the 1890s, was renamed Lorton Station. It is visible on this 1937 aerial photograph of Fairfax County, on Gunston Cove Road. The two buildings pictured west of the station are Fairfax County public schools, namely the Lorton School, constructed in 1922, and the larger brick Lorton Elementary School constructed in 1934. These buildings replaced an earlier schoolhouse, called the Lorton Valley School, which had been built in the late 1870s, three-quarters of a mile to the south, on land donated by John Plaskett, son of Joseph Plaskett. Today, the community of Lorton is still served by railways, with two train stations: the Amtrak Autotrain Station on Lorton Road, and the new Lorton Station on Lorton Station Boulevard along the Virginia Railway Express commuter line. Lorton Station Elementary School honors this community’s history by combining the names of the community, founded by the Plaskett family over 150 years ago, with a reminder of how important railroads still are to the development and identity of our neighborhoods.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax County Public Library's Virginia Room website:

Ernest Leviticus Plaskett was born on October 13, 1873 to John and Mary Plaskett. He was the seventh of the family’s ten children. John Plaskett’s father, Joseph Plaskett, had emigrated from England with his family in 1853, and eventually settled down in what is today Lorton, Virginia.

Three generations of Plasketts served the Lorton Valley Post Office for its entire thirty-six year existence. Located in Joseph Plaskett’s crossroads country store, he named the new post office “Lorton Valley” after his old home in Cumberland, England. The United States Post Office Department appointed Joseph Plaskett postmaster of Lorton Valley on November 11, 1875, followed by his grandson James Plaskett on November 6, 1893. One month later, on December 6, 1893, the Post Office Department appointed 20-year old Ernest L. Plaskett as postmaster. His sister, Susan Annie Plaskett speculated that he was the youngest person to ever be appointed postmaster at that time. Ernest was replaced as postmaster in 1901 by his father, John Plaskett, who held that position until the post office was discontinued in 1911.

The Lorton Valley Post Office was located one mile from the Telegraph Road Railroad Station on the RF&P Railroad. The Plasketts would take the mail down to the station when a train passed through and pick up the incoming mail. As rail service grew, mail service increased from three times a week, to daily, and then twice daily.

In the early 1880s, Ernest Plasket’s sister Emma’s husband, Joseph M. Springman, opened a general store next to the Telegraph Road Railroad Station. Springman became the station’s first agent and first post master when the Springman Post Office was established there in 1884. In the 1890s, the railroad station changed its name to “Lorton Station” while the post office continued to be called Springman. It officially changed its name to Lorton Post Office on July 6, 1910. The nearby Lorton Valley Post Office, always located one mile away, closed on June 2, 1911. The country store it was located in burned in May 1915, but the Plasketts latter erected a new store on the site.

Ernest Plaskett continued to serve as a railway postal clerk for three more decades. On December 30, 1896, Ernest married Margaret E. Trice in Washington D.C. The couple had three daughters and a son. During World War I, he worked at the YMCA in Camp A.A. Humphreys, the future site of Fort Belvoir. He died on July 9, 1943 and was buried in the Cranford United Methodist Church cemetery.

The Ernest L. Plaskett Certificate of Appointment as Lorton Valley, Virginia Postmaster is a certificate signed by Frank H. Jones, acting Postmaster General, on December 15, 1893 appointing Ernest L. Plaskett as Postmaster of the Lorton Valley Post Office on December 6th of that year.