Cardinal takes the Buckingham Branch

We've filmed plenty of videos at or near the Visitor Center in Orange, but have you ever noticed that all of the trains curve to the right rather than take the straight track south?
Not today. Three days a week, one train enters the Buckingham Branch and another comes off the connection. We were there to catch the Amtrak Cardinal take the close-track and track south on the old C&O toward Charlottesville.
What's the difference, if both tracks go through C'ville? Let's talk through where the Amtrak trains on NS go. Other trains taking the old Southern to Charlottesville are traveling to points further south. The Southern continues south toward Lynchburg, and either the Crescent continues south from there toward Atlanta and on to New Orleans, and the Regional turns west at Lynchburg to reach Roanoke -- it will someday continue south from Roanoke into the New River Valley.
The Cardinal, on the other hand, turns west at Charlottesville toward Staunton/Clifton Forge, where it will continue on the CSX trackage across West Virginia on its way to Chicago.
Which brings us back to, why take the C&O? The NS line in Charlottesville interchanges with the Buckingham branch, but that interchange is on the wrong side of the diamond. There is no route from the NS Platform at the Amtrak station to the BBRR line - in either direction.
So, the Cardinal enters (and leaves) the Buckingham Branch at Orange, it travels south to Gordonsville and then turns west to enter Charlottesville from its eastern side. It continues through the former C&O yard, alongside the historic downtown, and has its own platform at Charlottesville Union Station. The line continues across the NS tracks and rolls west over the mountains.
Incidentally, it's on the far side of Charlottesville on the climb up toward the peak at Afton that we find the same train again. This time at the former Ivy Depot site, the line has already climbed a significant distance out of C'ville, but it has a long way to go to reach the peak at Afton. Then it descends to Waynesboro, and does it all over again on the way to Staunton and on to Clifton Forge. This is the North Mountain sub, after all!
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