Editing Woodstock, Virginia (section)

=== Railroads ===

The commercial importance of Woodstock was enhanced by the coming of the railroad, and the railroad had significant impact upon the Woodstock's development. The first railroad south of Strasburg was the Manassas Gap Railroad.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.virginiaplaces.org/rail/valleyrail.html|title=Railroads of the Shenandoah Valley - and Why Isn't Harrisonburg on the Main Line?|website=www.virginiaplaces.org}}</ref> On March 2, 1859, the line was extended to Mount Jackson. The Civil War interrupted the work however, and the line remained a long spur from Strasburg, with Mount Jackson as the terminus. In 1865 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) acquired and reconstructed the line after extensive damage during the Civil War, merging it with the Orange & Alexandria to form the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad.<ref name="auto16">{{cite web|url=http://www.trainweb.org/PiedmontRR/railhst1.html|title=Norfolk Southern Railway History|website=www.trainweb.org|access-date=October 31, 2019|archive-date=November 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111185209/http://www.trainweb.org/PiedmontRR/railhst1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> They then extended the line to Harrisonburg in 1868.<ref name="auto5"/> In 1872, the B&O formed a separate subsidiary railroad on the line known as the Strasburg & Harrisonburg RR (S&H RR). In 1873 the B&O RR leased and operated the S&H RR between Strasburg and Harrisonburg.  But the B&O encountered financial difficulties and sold the S&H railroad subsidiary to the Southern Railway in 1896.<!-- Deleted image removed:   [[File:Former Woodstock, VA Rail Depot.jpeg|thumb|left|Former B&O passenger depot at Woodstock VA, demolished in 1954]] -->

In 1888, the B&O built a passenger station in Woodstock, made with native limestone, noted as one of the more elaborate passenger depots in the region.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/46|title=Woodstock Depot|website=Shenandoah Stories|access-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref> Woodstock became a freight rail entrepot with outward bound shipments of grain, cattle and fruit and inward bound freight of manufactured goods, rail service that continued into the 1960s. Passenger service ended in 1948 and freight rail service began to decline in the 1950s, reflecting a nationwide shift to cars and trucks with the advent of the national highway system. While individual industries were still served, sometime before 1969 regular freight depot service ended and the Woodstock freight depot was demolished in the 1970s.<ref name="auto14">{{cite web|url=http://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/47|title=Woodstock Freight Depot|website=Shenandoah Stories}}</ref> The Southern Railway merged with the Norfolk & Western in 1982 to become the Norfolk Southern Railroad, which owns the line through Woodstock to this day. However, industrial need for the line ended, and the rail between Strasburg between Edinburg (through Woodstock) is out of service, though the track remains.<ref name="auto16"/>

In 1954, the B&O sold the passenger station, and it was torn down in 1954 by a local businessman despite protests of many locals, and its loss damaged Woodstock's historical character and heritage as a once-active railroad town.<ref name="auto7">{{cite web|url=http://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/46|title=Woodstock Depot|website=Shenandoah Stories}}</ref>