Lorraine was an unincorporated community in Henrico County, Virginia

Henrico County, Virginia

Henrico is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. As of 2010, Henrico was home to 306,935 people. It is located in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area...

.

Lorraine was named for Edward Lorraine who was the 19th century chief engineer of the James River and Kanawha Canal

James River and Kanawha Canal

The James River and Kanawha Canal was a canal in Virginia, which was built to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast....

. According to the Library of Virginia, he was born in 1818. In 1842, he first worked as a rod man doing surveying work on the James River and Kanawha Canal, beginning a career of over 30 years. He was promoted to assistant engineer, and finally appointed chief engineer of the canal succeeding Walter Gwynn

Walter Gwynn

Walter Gwynn was a civil engineer and soldier who became a Confederate general in the American Civil War.-Early life:...

. Lorraine served in this position until his death from smallpox in December 1872.

Lorraine became a station stop of the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad

Richmond and Allegheny Railroad

The Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was built along the James River along the route of the James River and Kanawha Canal from Richmond on the fall line at the head of navigation to a point west of Lynchburg near Buchanan, Virginia, and combined with the Buchanan and Clifton Forge Railway Company to...

 which was built on the defunct canal's right-of-way in the 1880s. Soon after completion, the railroad was acquired by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...

. It became a major conduit for transportation of coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 from southern West Virginia to the coal pier

Coal pier

A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship.The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into the ship's cargo holds...

 on the harbor of Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...

 at Newport News

Newport News, Virginia

Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...

. Almost 100 years later, the line became the James River line of CSX Transportation

CSX Transportation

CSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...

, and still sees a heavy volume eastbound coal traffic .

Once a moderately busy passenger and freight station on the railroad, Lorraine was discontinued by the C&O in the mid 20th century.