SPECIAL ISSUE: SHORT LINES AND REGIONALS PLUS www.TrainsMag.com • June 2017 MAP: High speed in Japan p. 50 Big Boy update THE magazine of railroading p. 64 Short line of the future From sleepy road to unit train host p. 24

Aberdeen Carolina & Western hauls a unit How Pinsly ethanol train near holds on to Aquadale, N.C. its franchise p. 42

South Shore Freight p. 32

OmniTRAX’s rail and land strategy p. 52 © 2017 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. www.TrainsMag.com COVER STORY SLEEPY SHORT LINE TO BUSY UNIT TRAIN HOST Aberdeen Carolina & Western becomes short line of the future

by Jim Wrinn

IT IS DIFFICULT TO COMPREHEND, as cades ago, this branch was up becomes a chess game of finding frequent location for entertain- you stand on the edge of a for abandonment, was sold places for them. A modern ing customers and visitors. The country road in central North twice, and ended up in the 100,000-square-foot shop is ca- passenger cars are easy to spot Carolina, watching a long train hands of an unlikely out-of-state pable of handling not only the in the railroad’s signature ma- behind six-axle power make its businessman who immediately company’s maintenance and re- genta colors against the tall way along an undulating route realized he’d taken on a railroad building needs but that of con- pines of the Carolina Sandhills. of welded rail and deep ballast, with a daunting task: Keeping tract customers, as well. After 17 that it hasn’t been long since trains upright on the rails. years of work, the railroad broke HISTORY LESSON the rails of the Aberdeen Caro- The story today is much dif- even, and 20 years after its 1987 Before we explore the lina & Western snapped, ferent. The railroad has been ex- inception, it turned a profit. This railroad of 2017, let’s review snagged, and even sank under panded and transformed with is the story of how a short line what came before and how it much less tonnage. newer power, heavy welded rail, goes from 800 to 16,000 car- set up this short line’s struggles This privately owned 150- and in addition to the smatter- loads annually through perse- and successes. mile short line, shaped like a ing of single-car customers, verance, hard work, and just The Aberdeen Carolina & wobbly Y resting on its side, is you’re likely to encounter unit plain luck. Western is made up of tracks made up of the western portion trains. “Not that long ago, we There’s also an interesting from the original Norfolk of the original Norfolk Southern were the short line of the past,” and unexpected twist for a short Southern Railway. In the early Railway’s Charlotte-Raleigh- founder Bob Menzies says. “But line running through a mostly part of the 20th century, that re- Norfolk main line through the today, I like to think of us as the rural area. The railroad rosters gional carrier bought short rail- Uwharrie Mountains and a short line of the future.” restored private passenger cars, roads to complete its line from branch with a surprising touch Such talk is not idle brag- and for good reason: It runs Raleigh to Charlotte, getting nu- of passenger-train history. ging. On some days, the railroad through the nationally known merous branches in the process. A little more than three de- is so busy with unit trains that it Pinehurst Resort golf course, a According to Southeastern

© 2017 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any 24 Trains JUNE form2017 without permission from the publisher. www.TrainsMag.com Passing a Southern Railway whistle post, reflecting the line’s past, an Aberdeen Carolina & Western freight rolls between Star, N.C., and Gulf, N.C., with six-axle power, heavy rail, and deep ballast. Alex Keith railroad historian Richard E. sents an ancient beach that has Prince’s landmark 1972 book on long been noted for its tall pines, the original NS, the extension peaches, golf, and its general in- boosted the carrier to 900 route- hospitality to railroads. miles. This included a branch Operation of the Charlotte- between Aberdeen and Star, Raleigh main line was remark- which originally operated under able for its use of five light, but the name Aberdeen & West modern-for-1940, Baldwin-built End, and later the Aberdeen & 2-8-4s in fast freight service. On May 26, 1984, in its first year of operation, Aberdeen & Briar Asheboro. The branch had start- They were among the few Su- Patch Railway GP7 No. 896 poses at Aberdeen, N.C., just feet away ed as a logging and lumber road, per-Power designs to operate in from its interchange with CSX’s Hamlet-Raleigh main line. Jim Wrinn and for that reason it was built the Deep South. Sadly, none ex- quickly and cheaply and laid ist today: They were all sold to of the Pinehurst Resort. NS scheduled Pullman service be- mostly on top of the area’s un- Mexico, where they operated worked with trunk line Sea- tween New York City and Pine- dulating sandhills with minimal and then were scrapped. board Air Line, its Class I con- hurst began in December 1929 cut-and-fill work. Digging cuts The Star-to-Aberdeen nection at Aberdeen, to shuttle with the appropriately named or piling up fills would probably branch was notable for another first-class accommodations Carolina Golfer. The train was to have been a waste of time any- unlikely reason: Pullman pas- 6 miles between the interchange arrive in Aberdeen, be handed way: The Sandhills area repre- senger cars delivered to the door and the golf resort. Regularly off to the NS, and arrive in Pine-

www.TrainsMag.com 25 With a handful of boxcars and hopper cars in tow, westbound Norfolk Southern Railway GP18 No. 5 pulls a short local between Aberdeen and Pinehurst, N.C., in September 1969. Warren Calloway

through the merger of Norfolk & Western and Southern, the new company announced plans to abandon the Star-Aberdeen section. By then, the line was a two-days-a-week operation, the old jointed rail was brittle, and the Sandhills easily swallowed ties. It was a slow go for the crews: 10 mph with some 5-mph sections. Long-time Car- olinas rail photographer Robert Southern Railway GP18 No. 187, from the old Norfolk Southern Railway and rebuilt with a high short Graham recalls stalking the hood, hits 10 mph between Aberdeen and Star shortly before the property became a short line. Mike Small train in its later days and finding it so slow that he set a personal hurst less than 30 minutes later, Carolina course. Long after the customers here and there. record for most shots of one delivering golfers almost to the last passenger train turned a Southern Railway purchased freight, photographing it 51 door. The trip between the inter- wheel and steam gave way to the NS Railway in 1974, primar- times on its plodding pace. change and the resort must have diesel power, freight traffic on ily for access to agricultural In August 1983, the new NS been a real show. A steep stretch the 34-mile branch was worked phosphates in eastern North sold the Star-Aberdeen line to of 1.8-percent grade going west- out of Star with a single Geep or Carolina. But deregulation in local businessman Willard For- bound lay between the two. Can six-axle Baldwin. There was the 1980 and a dwindling manufac- myduval, who gave the line a you imagine the sound of an en- usual smattering of commodi- turing base in the Carolina whimsical name, Aberdeen & gine at work and the gleam of ties, recalls retired NS conductor Piedmont and Sandhills regions Briar Patch, even though there is the Pullman cars? John Grabarek: pulpwood at changed Southern’s thinking on no place called Briar Patch, But such glamorous work Biscoe, furniture at West End, its acquisition. Within the first though the line does pass was not to last long, as golfers sand and a carpet plant just out- year after the 1982 creation of through many of them. For began driving or flying to the side Aberdeen, and a few other Norfolk Southern Railway power, Formyduval used former

26 Trains JUNE 2017 Seaboard Coast Line GP7 No. 896, until he sold the rail- road just three years later to Menzies. The first owner knew something about the railroad that the buyer would later come to know all too well — the prop- erty was worn out and in des- perate need of rehabilitation. Before turning it over to Men- zies, Formyduval sought and won a $1.2 million FRA grant for track upgrades, but it was nowhere near enough to stabi- lize the line. He put a classified ad in Railway Age magazine, of- fering to sell the railroad, and waited to see who would call. CLASSIFIED AD CHANGES ALL Menzies almost didn’t be- come the owner of the Aber- deen-to-Star line. A Michigan native, he’d studied transporta- Soon after taking over the Charlotte-Gulf section of the former Norfolk Southern Railway main line, a tion logistics at Arizona State, pair of hand-me-down Geeps prepares to run from Star to Charlotte on March 1, 1990. Jim Wrinn had taught at universities in In- diana and Kentucky, and in 1972 had launched an industri- CENTRAL CAROLINA Salisbury Raleigh al-uniform business, serving au- Charlotte Map area Hamlet Gulf tomotive plants and steel mills. SHORT LINE Glendon But he always wanted to use his Robbins Spies education, and one day in sum- Star mer 1986, he was reading Rail- N 0 Scale 25 miles way Age when Formyduval’s © 2017 Kalmbach Publishing Co., TRAINS: Rick Johnson Troy classified ad jumped out at him. Not all lines shown Biscoe West End Knowing that he was already Candor set to take a trip to the North Pinehurst

Carolina coast, he contacted Midland Eagle Springs Charlotte StanfieldOakboro Hydro Aberdeen Formyduval and arranged a Norwood meeting. After nine months of Mount Gilead negotiations he purchased the railroad and renamed it Aber- deen Carolina & Western. lightning bolt of good luck that the local newspaper “It never Thus, with one locomotive, strike, and learn by trial and er- stopped covering them. Menzies failed that ev- two customers, and 34 miles of ror how a short line can utilize a looked at his traffic base of two ery week when decrepit track, Menzies started big railroad tool at a profit. It customers, a J.P. Stevens carpet we took those his new venture. Ahead lay prof- was a steep learning curve. “If plant in Aberdeen that received 10 cars the 34 itability, the title of the largest you’re in the railroad business, three or four cars of limestone miles at the re- short line by route-miles in you have to have a lot of perse- and latex each week, and a sand quired 10 mph North Carolina, and a busy rail- verance,” Menzies says. “It’s one plant that produced 10 heavy over the ex- Bob Menzies road with 18 customers, includ- of the most important qualities cars for interchange with NS at cepted track, ing two major chicken-feed to being in this business.” Star. He wasn’t generating a that we got on the ground at plants that would devour giant That’s easy to say today, but profit, let alone the money to least once and often more times. unit trains of corn. But first, he 30 years ago, it must have been plow into the railroad’s rehabili- Only one train out of the 51 that had to struggle with track, let a tough on the days when Men- tation. Fortunately, money from year made it back without a de- zies would settle into No. 896’s the Federal Local Rail Assis- railment,” Menzies recounts in engineer’s seat and notch out the tance Program was available, an unpublished essay he provid- throttle, wondering if he’d make and it began to flow from the ed Trains called “So You Want it across the railroad without a North Carolina Department of to Own a Railroad.” It is a real- MAGENTA derailment. The railroad had Transportation to help upgrade ist’s view, laced with a touch of The railroad got its signature few good crossties, and the track. Over the years at least humor, of the struggles of start- colors when a printer returned 70-pound rail was long past its $6 million in federal track ing a short line. In the essay, he letterheads with what was sup- posed to be red. The differ- prime, having been installed in grants has been invested in the recounts the derailment of a ence was eye-catching enough 1912 when the average loaded railroad, and another $40 mil- sand hopper, and how he hired to keep, and so it stands. freight car weighed 35-40 tons. lion of Menzies’ own money has the neighboring Aberdeen & Derailments were so frequent gone into the track. Rockfish short line to rerail it.

www.TrainsMag.com 27 Menzies and his crew of four tainaire Farms, were soon joined by eight mem- located its own MAGENTA PASSENGER bers of the Aberdeen & Rock- plant in Can- fish track gang. “As we were on dor in 2000, sandy fill, I watched day after the railroad CARS AND F UNITS day as they tried to jack up this was starting to car using crossties as their jack- look and feel Short lines, private varnish, and cab units are not ing pad. The only problem was, Ed Thum more like it supposed to co-exist, but this trio is coming together inside the the more they jacked, the more was going to Aberdeen Carolina & Western’s spacious shop building in Candor, N.C. the ties disappeared into the fill, survive. Two of the three elements are already are in place: the railroad and the and the railcar didn’t budge. All But with every opportunity private cars. The pride of the office-car fleet is the 1917Roamer , told, over 100 crossties were comes a challenge. This time it acquired in 2012 in anticipation of special events during the U.S. Open jacked into that fill with no re- was one that would transform Championship golf tournament in Pinehurst. The car, which had been sults. It took over a week in 95- the railroad into what it is today. stored inside, still required extensive work: More than 30 layers of 102 degree weather before we It is a universally accepted interior paint came off, and it took the efforts of a Smithsonian-trained called it quits. As there was no method of operations on main- conservator to revive the car’s beautiful oak interior, complete with gold way to unload the car because line railroads for decades but a leaf. Private car Pinehurst is a Pullman with a 24-seat dining room, a of its inaccessibility, I learned rarity in the shortline world: lounge, and a kitchen. A third car, Mission Santa Ynez, was completed the hard way to just call in a Unit trains. in 2015. Other cars in the fleet include two diners, two domes, and two couple of high-rail cranes and Menzies recalls that Moun- flatcars with railings, which the railroad describes to outsiders as “patio get the pain over with. That car tainaire began bringing 50-car cars.” The railroad’s Geeps or SDs currently pull the passenger cars, cost between $30,000-$40,000 unit trains from the NS inter- but that is about to change. After all, a passenger train isn’t truly to pick up with no insurance to change at Gulf, N.C. That was complete without appropriate power, so the railroad acquired and has cover those costs.” the good news. But instead of been slowly rebuilding an A-B-A set of former Milwaukee Road F7s that earning a profit from the trains, came via Ohio Central. The only problem with getting the units rebuilt SUCCESS IS JUST CHICKEN FEED they were costing the railroad and on the road is the pace of business. “We’re just so busy. It’s hard to The turning point in the rail- big money. After unit trains find time to work on them,” laments Vice President-Mechanical Dale road’s future came in 1987 when pounded a wood bridge so hard Parks. A 2016 visit showed the F units rebuilt inside and getting new Perdue Farms located a giant it required a $250,000 fix, Men- exterior panels. In the coming years, whether it needs to impress chicken-feed mill in Candor, zies began studying why unit visitors or business people, the Aberdeen Carolina & Western will have N.C., about 22 miles from Aber- trains were costing him more to itself one spiffy executive trainset in the Carolina Sandhills. — Jim Wrinn deen. While Menzies and his run than they earned. crew struggled to move covered He soon learned that each hoppers of corn across the rail- unit train, just to go 40 miles, road without derailments, he fo- cost the railroad $8,000 to cused the railroad’s efforts on $10,000 more in fuel, labor, and the worst parts of the track — track maintenance than it the curves where super-eleva- earned. Traction motors on his tions from the steam era were older locomotives were also highly exaggerated. Menzies punished on these heavy trains. brought in others to consult, Unit trains are cost-effective and they admitted that the rail- for Class I railroads, he sur- road might be too difficult and mised, but they can be costly to costly to rebuild. a short line if they’re not man- Menzies kept on. His first aged carefully. In his own rail- step was to get fresh ballast, road’s case, each unit train re- Shop crews have been slowly working on an A-B-A set of F units but he couldn’t afford new quired as many as eight elderly for use on special trains. At right is a former Southern Pacific rock. He bought used ballast GP7s or GP9s because of the office car under restoration. Two photos, Trains: Jim Wrinn instead, after CSX pulled up roller-coaster profile. the second track on its Hamlet- “This required us on the day Raleigh main line. Used rock of a unit train to round up all cost $2 per ton vs. $8 for fresh our locomotives, then run light ballast. Colleagues advised him the 40 miles, wait for NS to against the move — a lot of it show up, haul the unit train to might be sand, they said — but our customer, then after he had Menzies pointed out that his finished unloading, take the railroad was already laid on empties back to the interchange, sand. The recovered rock then run light again back to our would still be an improvement. terminal to disperse our loco- Then, he went looking for motives back to their normal rail, at least 100 pounds per yard chores of bringing in 10 or 20 or more. As more heavy rail cars at a time on a daily basis,” went in at the cost of millions, Menzies wrote in his essay. Three restored heavyweight private cars in the fleet, solarium derailments became fewer and “Unit trains at 6,600 tons are Mission Santa Ynez, parlor Pinehurst, and observation car less frequent. By the time a sec- hard on your locomotives and Roamer, shine in the railroad’s trademark magenta color. ond chicken-feed mill, Moun- hard on your track structure. In

28 Trains JUNE 2017 The engineer aboard Aberdeen Carolina & Western SD40-3 No. 6909 is all business as he leads five additional units and his train past a church and into Candor, N.C., on June 4, 2014. Unit trains are the basic operating component for the railroad today. Steve Smedley fact, we found our 90-pound rail, which was made in 1924, was starting to crumble under the weight of these trains.” Menzies brought in a Sperry car to test his rails for flaws ev- ery six months, and with each trip, more than 150 defects With six-axle power as well kept as the neighboring golf resort, Aberdeen Carolina & Western moves a unit would be revealed. The solution rock train through Pinehurst, N.C., on Oct. 3, 2011. Note the thick ballast under the train. Kenneth Lehman was buying 114-, 132-, and 141-pound welded rail — and CSX power operates through, trains themselves grew from 50 Class I connection doesn’t pick making a change in operations. onto the short line. Dedicated cars to 65, and recently to 95, up your cars from the inter- Another 5 miles of welded Aberdeen Carolina & Western weighing in at 10,000 tons and change and you’re blocked, rail was installed in 2016. Today, crews handle unit trains, and making good infrastructure vi- you’ve got a problem,” he says. all of the Sandhills section of the normal operations aren’t dis- tal. The pace is a challenge, too. Leaving the CSX interchange railroad between Aberdeen and turbed. Keeping the Class I rail- Sometimes as many as five unit at Aberdeen, loaded trains face Star is made up of welded rail, road’s six-axle units on the point trains can be on line at one time. that slow climb on 3 miles of and the section from Star to saves significant time. That’s when track space be- 1.8-percent grade. A pair of Charlotte that sees less tonnage Unit trains themselves have comes a problem, and the rail- ES44ACs, front and back, gets has been upgraded from changed since the railroad be- road finds itself in a chess game, down and grinds its way up the 85-pound jointed rail to gan handling them. Moun- moving one train out of the way hill, topping out at 10 mph if 100-pound jointed rail. tainaire has expanded its plant of another. the crew is lucky. But track upgrades were not five times to become the largest “You have to plan your In addition to corn for all that changed to make unit feed mill in the region, and that moves in advance,” says Opera- chicken feed, the railroad hauls trains work. At the start, unit has meant a constantly hungry tions Vice President Ed Thum. unit trains of outbound aggre- trains required the short line’s facility that can devour one unit The railroad can get backed up gates and inbound ethanol. The power at interchange, but now, train of corn after another. The quickly with one misstep. “If the latter go to a Cargill plant on

www.TrainsMag.com 29 In a classic shortline terminal scene, an Aberdeen Carolina & Western train switches Star, N.C., where the Aberdeen branch and the former Norfolk Southern main line intersect. Kenneth Lehman

the Charlotte section for distri- cause no industry is guaran- regional that’s jointly owned by bution to gasoline makers. Unit teed. Not one of the railroad’s CSX and NS, at Norwood. trains make up 60 percent of original handful of customers is the railroad’s business. still a shipper or even in busi- TRANSITIONS IN Having survived the bad- ness. And there’s room to grow POWER AND PEOPLE track era and the learning in other areas: The company The railroad shifted over the The shop complex also hous- curve for unit trains, Menzies has become a contract mainte- years from older secondhand es freight car repair and a place says that the recipe for a suc- nance vendor for industrial lo- Geeps to newer-but-used four- to work on the company’s 12- cessful short line is to have one comotives in the region, says axle power. Then it made a big car passenger fleet. It also hous- or two anchor customers, like Vice President-Mechanical switch to six-axle power that be- es the headquarters offices for the chicken-feed mills, that Dale Parks. came available during the Great Menzies, Parks, Thum, Vice support the railroad and allow Today, the Recession, President of it to grow and expand. busiest part of Parks says. To- Operations “When I first bought the the railroad is day, the line and General railroad, we had three or four the Star-to- stables 20 lo- Manager Carl small customers,” Menzies says. Aberdeen comotives, in- Hollowell, and “When Perdue came along I branch with cluding seven recently knew that would be an anchor. the Star-Char- wide-nosed named Presi- It would not make us complete- lotte line oper- GP40-2s of dent Jennifer ly profitable, but it gave us a Dale Parks ated every oth- Carl Hollowell Canadian Na- Jennifer Harrell — a base to build from, and without er day. The tional heritage, Harrell family mem- that we wouldn’t have made it.” Star to Gulf section is run as 12 SD40-3s of various lineages, ber who was Today the railroad also hauls needed with the NS interchange and one slug. The six-axle units in charge of marketing and be- plastics, outbound dimensional at Gulf dormant. Cars going to are especially useful on fre- came president last fall in a lumber, wood chips, brick, in- NS are handed off at the yard on quent, short, steep grades, and move to ensure continuity. bound butane, and propane. the north side of uptown Char- their Spartan cabs give them Menzies continues to serve the Menzies is also adamant lotte. The railroad also inter- great crew visibility during company as chairman, and he about finding new customers in changes with the Winston-Sa- switching. Their pulling power says he plans for the railroad to the six-county region that the lem Southbound Railway, a is unmatched. “With the six-ax- continue as an independent op- railroad serves, from the fast- le units, two of them can do the erator for years to come. “I get a growing suburban Charlotte work of four GPs,” Parks says. call about once every week area, to the rural central part of You’ll find all of the locomotives wanting to know if we’d like to North Carolina, and the golf neatly attired in the company’s sell,” he says of shortline holding resort area of the Carolina 16,000 green, cream, and magenta companies that have proliferat- Sandhills. Number of carloads Aberdeen paint scheme. ed and come to dominate the “You have to always be Carolina & Western handles The units are cared for in the business in the last 20 years. looking for new business,” he each year. Annual carloads new shops the railroad acquired “We’ve no interest in selling the says. “Now that the railroad is when Bob Menzies bought the in 2015 in Candor, just down railroad.” in good shape, we can focus on railroad in 1987: 800. the tracks from its two biggest What Menzies does have an that.” It’s important, he says, be- customers. interest in, besides keeping up

30 Trains JUNE 2017 Symbol of success: At the end of a long day, an Aberdeen Carolina & Western unit grain train ties down at the Perdue Farms chicken-feed mill in Candor, N.C., one of the line’s two major customers. the infrastructure and wooing new customers, is his passenger car fleet. The railroad uses its passenger cars for business re- cruitment and special excur- sions. The cars were highly visi- ble during the June 2014 U.S. Open Championship golf tour- nament at Pinehurst as a sta- tionary hospitality suite. In a story in the Moore County newspaper, The Pilot, Menzies described how his company did not need to rent a hospitality suite for the event — he brought his own. “This has A set of Aberdeen Carolina & Western units moves covered hoppers for switching at Aberdeen, N.C. some of the best views,” Menzies Grain for chicken feed is one of the railroad’s principal commodities. Two photos, AC&W: Chris Auman said in the story, describing how he stood in a flatcar equipped ficials seeking to bring business In the meantime, trains of ficult, derailment-prone days. with railings and a canopy car to the area and to the railroad. grain, rock, ethanol, and gener- Years of hard work, learning overlooking the driving and Freight trains were scheduled to al freight move across heavy from mistakes, and investing practice ranges at the Pinehurst run at night in order to avoid rail and deep ballast where heavily in the franchise have Resort clubhouse. “It’s our cor- the tournament and its crowds. there once was none. There’s al- paid off. It has led him and his porate tent.” The U.S. Open is set to return to ways more track work to do. team to an era of stability and The passenger train became Pinehurst in 2024, and you can Menzies likes to say that his profitability on a most unlikely a place to entertain the short count on the Aberdeen Carolina perseverance kept him in the railroad plunked down in the line’s guests as well as state and & Western to be ready to serve business during the Aberdeen Piedmont and Sandhills of local economic development of- as a willing host once more. Carolina & Western’s early, dif- North Carolina. 2

www.TrainsMag.com 31