Old Dominion Wildlife

Warrenton Branch Greenway

History

The Warrenton Branch Greenway is a paved trail running from downtown Warrenton to the east side of the eastern US 29 bypass. Long after regular passenger rail service stopped in Warrenton, Southern Railway operated some steam excursions to downtown Warrenton from Alexandria, Virginia in the mid-1970s. The branch line tracks into Warrenton were torn up and converted into a rail trail. Part of the branch is still in use from the mainline at Calverton to a quarry at Casanova about halfway towards Warrenton.

There are some railroad relics to be seen along the trail, including the site of an old turntable, a couple cabooses, and some railroad signage. Pictured above is a Southern Railway whistle sign. The two dashes, a dot, and a dash on the sign indicate to the engineer to blow the locomotive’s whistle (or horn) as a warning to the public. These signs are placed where the railroad approaches road crossings. Although the whistle pattern (2 long blasts, a short blast, and a long blast) is widely used, most other railroads used a simple W on their whistle signs. Norfolk Southern (successor to the Southern Railway) is now using W signs in places along former Southern trackage although there are still plenty of the old signs still in existence.

The old depot in Warrenton is now home to Claire’s at the Depot, a nice restaurant.

Wildlife

The 1.5 mile trail runs through town with views of backyards, but there is also an interesting marshy area on the north side, just west from the bridge over US29. Here is a link to a picture of some pokeweed at the east end of the trail. Wildflowers are also planted along the trail which I’m sure would look nice in the spring.