Onley lies approximately halfway between the Virginian border with Maryland and Cape Charles on the path of The Eastern Shore Railway which was opened in 1884 by the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk Railroad.  The railway ran for some 60 miles in an almost straight line southwards from the Virginia border  until reaching the outskirts of Cape Charles, when the line took a 90 degree turn westwards to the centre of the town and the port.

At the port of Cape Charles freight wagons were shunted onto special barges and towed by tugs across 26 miles of the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk.  Passengers completed their journey by luxury steamer.  Regular daily passenger services were operated from New York and Philadelphia to Cape Charles and Norfolk, with considerable goods traffic also on the line.  Traffic continued much as previously in the late 1940s but as the 1950s progressed, as with all railways, both passenger and goods custom was being lost to road transport.  The last passenger train ran from Cape Charles northwards on 11th January 1958.

Onley was one of 18 station stops on the Virginian Eastern Shore, in a distance of just over 60 miles.

Mike Smith, August 2009.

These photographs were taken in June 2009.

2011:  A group called the Society for the Preservation of the Onley Train Station has been established to restore Onley Train Station.  Work is under way.
See the group's blog at:  http://onley-spots.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_01_archive.html