About the Project

Rlkeyes Rails is an independent research and documentation project by historian and photographer Rebecca Sullivan. It explores the lost and surviving depots, sidings, and rail corridors of Virginia.

What began as a personal fascination with local railroad history and abandoned landscapes has grown into an ongoing effort to locate, photograph, and digitally reconstruct the network that helped shape Virginia’s towns and economy. Through field photography and archival research, this project brings together past and present to reveal what remains today.

The Vision

Railroads once connected nearly every part of Virginia, leaving behind footprints that have faded from view, but not from history. This project seeks to rebuild those connections. Each depot, bridge, and spur is treated as a chapter in the broader story of movement, architecture, and community.

The long-term goal is to create an open digital archive linking field photographs, maps, blueprints, and other primary sources to each documented location. Every post, overlay, and interactive map pin contributes to that living record.

About the Researcher

Rebecca Sullivan is a historian, educator, and photographer based in Richmond, Virginia. She holds a B.A. in History and an M.Ed. in Secondary Education from the College of William & Mary.

Rebecca’s background includes several years of teaching history and cultural studies, curriculum design, and independent fieldwork centered on Virginia’s rail heritage and architecture. As a professional photographer, she documents local street art, rail history, and the changing industrial landscape, blending visual storytelling with archival research.

Her ongoing project, Rlkeyes Rails, brings together her experience as a historian and photographer to preserve and interpret the stories, structures, and communities shaped by the state’s railroad past.

For questions, contributions, or collaboration, please visit the Contact Page.

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