The collection centers around the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac (RF&P) Railroad Company, which linked Richmond to Alexandria, and connecting railroad lines (i.e. B&O Railroad, C&O Railroad, Southern Railroad, Atlantic Coast Line, and the Seaboard Airline Railroad). The material largely consists of annual reports, time tables, rules and regulations, historical facsimiles, and miscellaneous ephemera. The collection ranges in date from 1869 to 2002, but is predominantly from the first half of the 20th century.
The collection is organized at the box level, with box one containing annual reports, historical facsimiles, instructions/rules, and miscellaneous train related ephemera from 1869-2002. Box two contains time tables for various railroads from 1937-1991. Box three contains rules/regulations, contracts, and miscellaneous ephemera for railroads and Potomac Yard employees from 1911-1988.
James F. Foley was an employee in various positions with the RF and P Railroad beginning in 1966. After CSX merged with RF and P, and closed Potomac Yards in 1992, he moved to Jacksonville where he worked as a manager in customer service for the CSX Clearance Bureau. He retired in 2003. He is the author of Potomac Yard: The Gateway Between the North and the South (2013).
[item identification], James E. Foley Railroad Collection, MS405, Alexandria Library, Local History and Special Collections, Alexandria, Virginia.