Aberdeen & Rockfish

[CraigZ]

http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/8704440/ - a little touchy-feely cheesy but still nice to see the A&R get a little love. The TV station is here in my area; the A&R is about 90 miles south.

[Ohmisterporter]

Thanks Craig. Some interesting trackwork in that piece. The locomotives are still very smart though. The studio presenter made a comment about it not being high speed rail, missing the point that it is as fast as it needs to be to serve its customers. It cannot have survived over a hundred years otherwise.

 

Geoff.

[Oldddudders]

ISTR that in the steam era, the A&R had big steel cutouts of red indian head-dresses on the pilot of the loco? They seem to have lost that tradition somewhere down the years....

[EddieB]

ISTR that in the steam era, the A&R had big steel cutouts of red indian head-dresses on the pilot of the loco? They seem to have lost that tradition somewhere down the years....

 

Not sure, but http://www.aberdeen-..._r_history.html talks about "decorative eagles".

 

"Native american" (ahem) head-dresses wouldn't be too popular in these politically-correct days, everything from Santa Fe "warbonnets" to the Washington Redskins have faced criticism for their depictions of native traditions.

 

Excellent video clip by the way. I'm sure we couldn't achieve anything like that in a news report in the UK without some "witty" comment by an ignorant presenter.

[trisonic]

Craig,

Great link - I really miss North Carolina.

Do you know of an even smaller shortline north of Greensboro off 68? I believe it was called the Franklin Valley RR. I took some photos and sent them to my brother who has since died and they got lost. If I remember rightly the President of the RR was a woman and the red locos had faded to a pink hue which she rather liked.

Any ideas?

 

Cheers, Pete.

[CraigZ]

Craig,

Great link - I really miss North Carolina.

Do you know of an even smaller shortline north of Greensboro off 68? I believe it was called the Franklin Valley RR. I took some photos and sent them to my brother who has since died and they got lost. If I remember rightly the President of the RR was a woman and the red locos had faded to a pink hue which she rather liked.

Any ideas?

 

Cheers, Pete.

 

 

North of Greensboro, I can't say that I know of one. Was it red/white little 70 ton diesels? Perhaps the Franklin County, which was an ex Seaboard Air Line branch from Louisburg to Franklinton?

 

 

It was one of the Laurinburg & Southern's branch lines...they took over several in NC around that time.

 

 

 

 

 

[trisonic]

Craig, I've been racking my brains (i.e. looking through an old scrapbook) and found a distant photo of the HQ and it was in a town called "Rural Hall". The "mainline" seemed to have run along 66 through the town.

I've found it - apparently was the Yadkin Valley Railroad since taken over by the Gulf and Ohio (!?!)

 

Best, Pete.

[Ohmisterporter]

Craig, I've been racking my brains (i.e. looking through an old scrapbook) and found a distant photo of the HQ and it was in a town called "Rural Hall". The "mainline" seemed to have run along 66 through the town.

I've found it - apparently was the Yadkin Valley Railroad since taken over by the Gulf and Ohio (!?!)

 

Best, Pete.

 

The Gulf and Ohio recently took over the Lancaster and Chester Railway in SC. If I can use a British analogy they seem to be rather like Colonel Stephens with his collection of short branch lines all remote from each other. However, the G&O lines are probably profitable, and there the likeness ends.

 

Geoff.

[CraigZ]

Craig, I've been racking my brains (i.e. looking through an old scrapbook) and found a distant photo of the HQ and it was in a town called "Rural Hall". The "mainline" seemed to have run along 66 through the town.

I've found it - apparently was the Yadkin Valley Railroad since taken over by the Gulf and Ohio (!?!)

 

Best, Pete.

 

Yep. Yadkin Valley was originally part of a 19th century line (Atlantic & Yadkin) that was to run from Wilmington NC to the Pocahontas coal fields...Southern and ACL put paid to that, buying it out and splitting it at Sanford NC...east going to the ACL, west to the Southern. The Yadkin Valley was also another Laurinburg & Southern shortline, like the Franklin County. The G&O bought the L&S, thus the takeover. In the deal was the L&S itself, the YV, and the Nash County (Rocky Mount, NC to a Perdue feel mill east of Nashville NC). There were a couple of others that didn't survive, including the Franklin County, the Red Springs & Northern (Parkton NC to Red Springs, NC). The L&S aka LRS was an old time shortline that sort of grew with these other branchlines and with doing small loco leasing to industries and so forth; eventually the G&O took over the LRS railroad operations while Johnson Rail Services now has the leasing business. It's a swarm of 70 tonners, SW1s and other assorted old Geeps and switchers leased out to feed mills, a glass plant, coal tipples, etc.

 

Some pix:

 

Yadkin Valley GP38 after the takeover

 

Red Springs & Northern 70 tonner at Parkton NC

 

A Laurinburg & Southern 70 tonner at Laurinburg NC

 

Nash County SW1 (ex Union RR) at Rocky Mount NC - branch now run with G&O GP38s or GP7/9 rebuilds. The G&O is not shy about moving its power around.

[trisonic]

Many thanks, Craig.

I believed I stumbled on the YVRR whilst going on a trip up to Hanging Rock SP. It looked like the town (Rural Hall) was built around the railroad with that broad expanse running through the centre.

It went up to Mount Airy, right? I get confused as to whether that is the fictional name or the real one! The TV show was such a part of Americana (particularly for the South) during the fifties and early sixties - it was still being repeated ad nauseum in Greensboro in the nineties.

I wish that I could find my photos because the entire fleet of locos seemed to have been parked up at Rural Hall that first Sunday (Summer, 1989).

 

Best, Pete.

[CraigZ]

Many thanks, Craig.

I believed I stumbled on the YVRR whilst going on a trip up to Hanging Rock SP. It looked like the town (Rural Hall) was built around the railroad with that broad expanse running through the centre.

It went up to Mount Airy, right? I get confused as to whether that is the fictional name or the real one! The TV show was such a part of Americana (particularly for the South) during the fifties and early sixties - it was still being repeated ad nauseum in Greensboro in the nineties.

I wish that I could find my photos because the entire fleet of locos seemed to have been parked up at Rural Hall that first Sunday (Summer, 1989).

 

Best, Pete.

 

Yes, up to Mt Airy was as far as the Atlantic & Yadkin got. I remember seeing one of the Franklin County engines over there at one time, too...

 

Mt Airy is very real, and today makes its hay off tourists wanting to see "Mayberry"...Andy Griffith was born and raised in Mt Airy and based his fictional Mayberry on the town...

[F-UnitMad]

I love the "Spotter-Friendly" numbers on that YV GP38...

Looks like someone modeling N scale only had some O scale decals in stock.