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.