Updated November 18, 2013.
From the April 28, 1983 Beacon. This is the McKeen motor car shown at Norolk Southern's Main Street Yard about 1910. It was known as the 'Sportsmen's Special' and the 'Lawyer's Special' because it's destination was Munden Point, in the heart of duck hunting country. It stopped at the Princess Anne Courthouse, enabling lawyers to arrive in time for court and depart on the return trip in the afternoon.
Comment June 14, 2010 by Brenda Twiford: This was a gasoline powered train. "The Scooter" was operated by the Norfolk & Southern Railroad from Norfolk to Munden Point, Virginia. It began operation around 1910 when this photo was taken. In 1923 the train became electrified. In 1935 it was withdrawn from active service and scrapped.
November 18, 2013. From Jane Brumley.
Drive south past Pungo, Pleasant Ridge, Creeds
and enter Munden Point Road. With its quiet private homes and
large municipal park on the North Landing River, it may be hard to
visualize this area once being a busy, thriving village and
commerce center.
An early reference of the area is in a Princess
Anne County deed of Nathaniel Munden purchasing land in 1786
adjacent to Morse property “on the river.” As population increased
in the 19th century, lower Princess Anne County deriving income
from primarily agriculture, fishing and wildlife hunting, it
became necessary to find ways to transport goods, passengers and
the northern sportsmen for the hunting clubs. Travel to Norfolk
with mules, horses and carts were difficult in those days. So what
could be done?
A narrow-gauge rail between Norfolk and
Virginia Beach was built in 1883. A standard-gauge railroad was
constructed by the Norfolk Virginia Railroad (later Norfolk &
Southern) in 1898. The rail line came through Kempsville, veering
off with a train track through Princess Anne Courthouse with stops
at Pungo, Pleasant Ridge, Back Bay, Creeds and ending at Munden
Point.
With steamers and other boat traffic plying the
North Landing River, the Munden Point train depot was located just
in front of the landing. The depot became a busy place with
loading and unloading of passengers and goods on both steamers and
trains. In summer passengers and all manner of agricultural
products, including livestock, were transported from local farmers
and steamers on the train. In winter it was the northern
sportsmen, some with their own Pullman cars containing business
associates, family members, maids, cooks and butlers.
Munden Point became a regular village located
behind the depot with houses for the railroad workers, a barrel
factory, a store, a post office and horse stables. The store
doubled as an inn where rooms were available for passengers from
rail and boat. During that time the train made two trips a day
from the Point to Norfolk.
On one of these trips V.”Reggie” Waterfield ,
while he does not remember, went on the train with his parents in
1928 to hear a speech at Cape Henry by Herbert Hoover. Reggie
chuckles that maybe Hoover did promise “a chicken in every pot”
that day.
As time passed, roads improved, and automobile
and truck travel became popular, the steamers ceased to operate
and the railroad stopped service by the early 1940s. The “store”
closed in 1968 and there is no longer a Munden Point Post Office.
