Durham division

[NW Mailing List]

To add a little to Harry's 3rd bullet point below.....When the line was put in to replace the part that is now under Jordan Lake, the 70# had to be made specifically for the project since larger rail was the preferred thing by then.  Supposedly, this was the last new 70# rail put down in the US. Currently, the New Hope Valley Railway (East Carolina Chapter, NRHS and the NC Railroad Museum) owns about 6 miles of this trackage....about 4 of it being part of the 'new line' and about 2 miles of the original NS, albeit mostly grown up with brush.  Another portion of the new line is the American Tobacco Trail, a walking/riding/running trail that goes back towards Durham.  The old NS line is interesting in that much of the ballast used was simply sand and many of the crossties have no tie plates on them. Definitely not a high speed line!!Will Sadler Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message --------From: NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> Date: 9/25/20  11:43 AM  (GMT-05:00) To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org Cc: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> Subject: Re: Durham division 

 


 


 






We have discovered that many of the steel rails throughout Durham are still in evidence.

I wonder why they were not removed?




Jim:

I'm not sure where you're finding steel rails in Durham.  I haven"t been to Durham in

ages, but bear this in mind:

 1- The Durham attraction for rail traffic was The American Tobacco Co.  So I've been

     told, ATCO closed the Durham plant and transferred operations to their plant

     in Reidsville. That could account for some of the rail if the story is correct.




2- Today's Norfolk Southern operates Greensboro thru Durham to Goldsboro on a

    right-of-way of the state-owned North Carolina Railroad.  Maybe NCRR hasn't

    seen fit to take the expense to remove the rail.  (Does NCRR have to pay

    state property tax ?)




3- To participate in the lucrative tobacco revenue, SAL had a branch from Henderson

    to Durham.  Is it still in service ?  The Norfolk Southern Railway had a branch

    from Duncan, NC laid in 70# rail and a maximum authorized speed of 20 MPH.

    In the late 1960s, the proposal to build a flood control dam on the New Hope

    River would have submerged 19 miles on the old NS connection and the federal

   government paid to realign the Durham connection in kind, but who was rolling

   70 # rail in the late 60's ?  The government offered NS the option of replacing the

   70# rail with 100# relay rail IF NS paid the difference in cost.  NS nixed the offer.

   The relocated line was completed in 1973 and on Janury 1, 1974, NS was

   absorbed by Southern Railway.  AFter that, the Lucky Strikes went to location

   on the SRS.

   Could be that some of the NS Rwy. to South Durham is still in existence.


                                                       Harry Bundy


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