Articles in regional publications that pertain to a wide range of North Carolina-related topics.
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Record #:
2002
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The National Railroad Museum in Hamlet features a Victorian train station, a locomotive, period cars, and other memorabilia that give visitors the feel of the railroading era.
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3085
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For over thirty years, Floyd McEachern has collected material from the era of steam engines. Today his more than 3,000 items, including hand lanterns, train uniforms, and a caboose, are on display at the Historical Train Museum in Dillsboro.
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Record #:
5488
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Railroading began in England in 1825, and by the 1830s, had reached North Carolina, offering a shipping alternative to turnpikes, canals, and steamboats. By 1860, 834 miles of track had been laid. Watson discusses the rise of railroads in the years leading up to the Civil War.
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Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Bulletin
(NoCar F 262 C2 L6x), Vol. 44 Issue 3, May 2000,
p1-8, il, f
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Record #:
5887
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Many people think theme park when they hear the words Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, but there actually was a Tweetsie Railroad. Bourknight discusses the line that dates back to 1866 and linked Eastern Tennessee with Western North Carolina. The locomotive that pulls the train at the park is the original engine No. 12 that was purchased from cowboy actor Gene Autry in 1956, restored, and brought to Blowing Rock.
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Record #:
5950
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Railroads across eastern North Carolina were a vital supply link for Confederate forces during the Civil War. Price describes the adventures and challenges of riding the trains during the turmoil of war.
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Record #:
6196
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Five North Carolina railroads were authorized by legislation between 1829 and 1833. The last one chartered was the first to build. It was called The Experimental Railroad and carried heavy granite stones one-and-a-half miles from a Raleigh quarry to the site where the State Capitol building was being rebuilt after a fire.
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Record #:
6562
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Many people think theme park when they hear the words Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, but there actually was a Tweetsie Railroad. Johnson discusses the line that linked Eastern Tennessee with Western North Carolina in the 19th- and 20th-centuries and what lead to its demise.
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Record #:
7471
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Reevy recounts the history of one of the shortest rail lines in the country. The short-run Carrboro Branch line between Chapel Hill and Carrboro has served its unique purpose for more than a century. Incorporated in 1873 as the Chapel Hill Iron Mountain Railroad Company, the ten-mile railroad was to serve an iron mine. Construction of the road began in 1879, but the company soon ran out of money. The mine was never a success, and ownership passed through several large railroad companies. Today, the line carries coal to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Cogeneration Facility three times a week as well as other freight for the area. About the mid-20th-century, Carrboro native and folksinger, Elizabeth “Libba†Cotton wrote a famous song, called “Freight Train,†about the Carrboro train as she knew it.
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Record #:
7741
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For the Norfolk and Southern Railroad to cross the Albemarle Sound in the 1880s, it was more efficient to float the entire train instead of unloading the freight onto the barge. In 1910, a five and a half mile bridge was built, making it the longest in the world. This allowed trains to cross the Albemarle in eighteen minutes rather than two and a half hours. By 1986, the seventy-six year old bridge was reaching its limits. Because it cost $19 million to strengthen the supports, the state considered floating the train across the water as it did in the past.
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Record #:
8126
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Willard Formyduval bought the Aberdeen and Briar Patch Railroad in 1983. Allison Francis Page and his two brothers built the railroad line in 1879 to haul timber from the forests to their mill. The original railroad line created the town of Briscoe, and its short-lived passenger business bloomed in the early 1900s. Now, the line goes from Aberdeen to Pinehurst, West End, Candor, and Briscoe, offering freight service to businesses in outlying communities. The A & BP's first run, in 1984, was met with skepticism, but, after two years, it is a thirty-four-mile railroad, serving fourteen businesses. Thanks to a 1985 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, it is in the middle of a $1.2 million rehabilitation project.
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Record #:
8676
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In 1912, W.J. Grandin came from Pennsylvania to Wilkes County to build the Watauga Railroad. The completed line ran from Wilkesboro to Elkville, where there was a switch. One section of the line went to Gardin and the other to Darby. Although mostly for freight, the train ran one passenger excursion on Sundays. The railroad was ruined by the flood of 1916, and again in 1918, after which it was not rebuilt.
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Record #:
8836
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The author's personal account of traveling state-to-state on the railroad in the 1930s. The author's father was a railroad president and could therefore get free train tickets for himself and his family.
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Record #:
9097
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Commonly called Tweetsie, the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad was the narrow-gauge common-carrier railroad that once ran from Boone into Tennessee. It was one of the last steam rails in the country, and was almost the last narrow-gauge freight road when its last track was taken out of North Carolina in 1950 due to annual operating losses.
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Record #:
9124
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On May 21, 1840, the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad ran for the first time from Gaston to the newly completed State Capitol building in Raleigh. This article uses excerpts from two 1840 letters between fifteen-year-old Peter Foster and his father to describe the train and the excitement it stirred in the communities.
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Record #:
9175
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In the 1920s and 1930s with the introduction of automobiles and buses, the railroad industry came up with the doodlebug to help spur passenger business. Cheap and energy-efficient, travelers and railroad companies embraced the new car. The base of the doodlebug was actually a Model-T Ford on railroad wheels. Streetcars and highway trucks with railroad wheels also functioned as doodlebugs. Several businesses set up in North Carolina to manufacture the cars, including the Edwards Company, which supplied cars to Fort Bragg's railway. By 1950, bigger, sleeker railroad cars were introduced, ending the doodlebug era.
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