The
Lost
Link
A westbound rail line
which never got beyond
Mount Airy, but Tar
Heels enjoyed riding it.
Btj ABE I>. JO AES. JR.
It may have occurred to you, as it
did to many others in last winter’s gas
lines, that there used to be other ways
to get around in North Carolina.
Many were remembering yesterday's
passenger trains; and some, un¬
doubtedly, recalled traveling on a
coast-to-mountain line whose rails rep¬
resented one of North Carolina’s great
transportation dreams, dating back
over a hundred years.
The dream, long dead, was physi¬
cally laid to rest only five years ago
when workmen took up an ancient sec¬
tion of rails between Sanford and
Spring Lake. They had been part of a
railroad designed not only to link Wil¬
mington with the Piedmont, but to
break the mountain barrier beyond
Mount Airy. North Carolina’s great
western rail line would have opened a
link to the coal fields beyond, as well as
to the markets and factories of the Mid¬
dle West.
As late as 1939, Tar Heels could
still catch a train in Mount Airy and go
behind puffing steam engines, seated
upon red or green plush, through Wal¬
nut Cove and Greensboro, on to Lib¬
erty. Sanford and Fayetteville, then
down the Cape Fear Valley to Wil¬
mington.
Coal for the Navy
The dream, begun as a canal build¬
ing scheme at the time of the War of
1812, left only traces of a canal. Much
of the rail line, which never reached
beyond Mount Airy, is still intact and
hauling freight — though not from
mountains to the seacoast.
The "Cape Fear, Yadkin and Pec
Dee Railroad" was chartered in the
1840s, but never got far. By 1852,
track was laid on the Western or Coal
Fields Railroad, stretching from Fay¬
etteville to the Egypt Coal Mine in
Chatham County. During the Civil
War, it carried coal to Fayetteville
which was then sent by barge to Wil¬
mington. There it fueled the blockade
runners and the Confederate Navy’s
Cape Fear Squadron.
It was not until 1879 that the west¬
ward crawl of the rails began again. A
new company was chartered, the Mt.
Airy Railroad. It was an appropriate
name. By 1889. the line had reached
the town which became its western
terminus. In 1890, the line drove east¬
ward to the sea at Wilmington.
A Great Celebration
J. A. Gray of Greensboro, promi¬
nent businessman and first president of
the Greensboro Chamber of Com¬
merce. was the line's president and
guiding spirit. There was talk of press¬
ing the line across the mountains to
Cincinnati.
On February 17, 1890. a gala excur¬
sion was run on the line. The last spikes
had been driven. Special trains carried
business and civic leaders to celebra¬
tions at Mount Airy. The Wilmington
Messenger hailed the event with a
special edition.
Fortune smiled. Profits soared. But
traffic declined in 1892. Ovcrcxpan-
sion was blamed. The spurs to Bcn-
ncttsvillc, S. C, and elsewhere were
not producing. The hoped-for profits
The roil line repretenting North Corolina'» oncienf ambition*
ю
connect it» coo»t with the Wc»t come
along here, until the track» were token up live yeort ago. Thete bridge pier» ttill »tond in
о
creek
neor Olivio.
Elsewhere, much of the roil line ii ttill intact and hauling freight.
THE STATE. APRIL 1974
9
