Virginia Midland Railroad

Virginia Midland Railroad operated from 1880 to 1898, when it was acquired by the Southern Railway.

Wreck at the Fat Nancy's Trestle

July 12, 1888. At 2:15 o'clock on the Virginia Midland Railroad a 44-foot-high, 487-foot-long trestle bridge near Orange Courthouse, locals called the “Fat Nancy Trestle,” gave way, sending the passenger train crashing to the ground. Nine passengers were killed, including two Confederate veterans, and more than two dozen were injured. Also killed was civil engineer Cornelius G. Cox, who had earlier designed the current culvert and earthen fill to replace the unstable trestle. Former Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, another passenger, survived. The "Wreck at the Fat Nancy" was one of the worst railroad disasters in VA history.

The train, scheduled to make stops in Augusta, Georgia; Atlanta and New Orleans, typically carried between 150 and 200 passengers. No. 52 consisted of mail, baggage, smoking and ladies’ cars, three sleepers, the locomotive (Engine 694) and a tender. After leaving the Orange Court House station, heading to the Charlottesville station, the train approached the 44-foot-high, wooden Browning Trestle spanning rain-swollen Two Runs Creek located two miles south of Orange Court House.