The Commonwealth Railway, Inc. is a Class III short-line railroad operating 16.5 miles of track of a former Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railway line from Suffolk, Virginia, to Portsmouth, Virginia. The main office is in the Wilroy area of Suffolk. Commonwealth Railway is owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. and is a part of Norfolk Southern's "Thoroughbred Shortline Program". They interchange with Norfolk Southern in Suffolk. An important industry on the line is the BASF Chemical plant in the West Norfolk area of Portsmouth. The plant is usually switched by locomotive #444, a GP16 class... locomotive rebuilt by Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in the early 1980s. The main locomotive is #517, a CF7 rebuild of an EMD F7 performed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in the 1970s. Another important industry is APM Terminals, which is a modern shipping container port in Portsmouth, VA along the Elizabeth River. This port was leased by Maersk to the Virginia Port Authority in late 2010. Commonwealth Railway is the only rail line to access the port. Another port is planned for Craney Island.
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