Stanly County, North Carolina, and it's Railroads
Current Operations
Contents:
Winston-Salem Southbound Railway
Norfolk Southern (ex-Yadkin)
Norfolk Southern (ex-Yadkin Railroad)
January 16, 2006. A railfan's tour of this NS branch has been completed, and is here. There have been 2 major events concerning the branch since the last update. The Badin Works shut down as a primary aluminum producer, and that took a huge amount of traffic off the line. Indeed, 98% of the traffic between Halls Ferry Junction and Whitney is gone. The only remaining traffic is an occasional boxcar for the ingot purification work still being done in Badin.
However, there is also some good news -- very good news. Universal Forest Products, in the old Sun Belt facility, is doing a robust business, and is receiving 8-12 cars a week of dimensional lumber. Southern Pipe, mentioned in the March 2000 entry, has continued to expand production, and their spur contains 6-7 covered hoppers of PVC pellets at all times. Fiber Composites, LLC, a maker of "vinyl lumber" has expanded repeatedly (it's in the same area as Universal), and as of late 2005, began both receiving raw materials and shipping completed decking by rail. They have an impressive inventory of finished product on hand, and I've seen 3 empty 75' bulkhead flats in their loading ramp.
Besides the Halls Ferry Junction business, aggregate and dimensional lumber business north of the Stanly County line keeps the branch hopping, and the 2 locals still work much as they did in 2002. However, the local out of Badin works with one engine now, as there is little traffic going from Halls Ferry Junction to Badin.
The entire branch from Halls Ferry Junction to Salisbury has been upgraded physically to 25 miles per hour status.
July 12, 2002. US highway 52 parallels the line from Salisbury (actually, from the town of Granite Quarry) most of the way into Albemarle. In Stanly County, just south of New London at Halls Ferry Junction, the original line to Albemarle and the branch to Badin diverge. Technically, the Salisbury - Albemarle line is the N-Line of the Piedmont Division, while the Halls Ferry Junction - Whitney line is the WL-Line of the Piedmont Division. Again, technically, the line from Whitney to Badin is actually owned by Alcoa.
The original line south from Halls Ferry Junction is moribund. Of major interest to the student of Stanly County railroading is the fact that the line has been cut immediately north of the crossing with WSSB. Apparently, NS has given up on generating any traffic south of the crossing.
The aluminum works in Badin constitute the main reason for the continued existence of this entire line today.
Because of the amount of traffic and the slow running over the entire route, the lines now are handled by 2 locals, P1 and P2. Think of P1 as the southern train, and P2 the northern one. P1 resides at Badin during the week, and works up to either Halls Ferry Junction or Gold Hill. It's counterpart comes down from the local yard at Spencer, and goes to either Gold Hill or HFJ. Times are uncertain, but earlier is better than later. It's rare to see anything on the line after mid-afternoon. Frograil wishes to thank Michael Ridenhour for this updated operating plan.
Because there is a significant grade between Halls Ferry Junction and Badin, and also because of additional traffic being generated both in and north of Stanly County, 5,000-7,000 horsepower is common on these trains. Average traffic in and out of Halls Ferry Junction is maybe 10-20 cars per day, although I've seen 3 engines and 40+ cars on occasion. There are no other customers on the branch between Halls Ferry Junction and Whitney.
March 20, 2000 entry: Southern Pipe has not only started operations in 1999, but is now expanding production of PVC pipe by 150%. They are located just south of Sunbelt Wood Products, and are using 3-6 cars of plastic pellets per week.
There are no other railroad customers north of Halls Ferry Junction in Stanly County.
Much of the physical plant of the Halls Ferry Junction-Rowan County line is continuous weld, and in excellent condition. Most road crossings were re-built during 1996, and extensive tie replacement was done in 1999. "Re-lay" ties were used south of Halls Ferry Junction, and new ties were used north of the junction.
1998, June 15 entry: At Halls Ferry Junction is a siding, and at the end of the siding a new rail customer has just started operations! This is really exciting news for the Stanly County railroad scene. An industrial spur into Sunbelt Wood Products, Inc., is now receiving bulkhead flats full of dimensional lumber. The factory complex is quite extensive, and will make roofing trusses for the manufactured home industry. [NOTE: The crash of the manufactured housing industry killed SWP and its parent -- they went bankrupt in 2000 or early 2001. However, Universal Forest Products bought the facility and, as of July 2002, it was humming again, getting several cars of dimensional lumber a week.]
Just north of Halls Ferry Junction, a new Patrick Industries plant is being constructed. A new spur has been run into the site, but little rail traffic has been observed. The spur is in the back of the plant, and therefore invisible from public property.
Winston-Salem Southbound Railway
The WSSB is kind of like a ghost in Stanly County. Strangely, the physical plant is definitely superior to the other two lines in the county, yet your chances of seeing a train on the line are somewhere between slim and none. There are 3 trains per week in each direction, but they tend to run in the dead of night.
January 16, 2006. An inspection of the line between the Rocky River and a point about a mile north of there indicated that the roadbed has deteriorated significantly during the past 4 years. Many ties are completely rotted out, and several tie plates have moved or are even missing. Actually, the NS ex-Yadkin Branch looks to be in better shape that the WSSB.
July 12, 2002. Trains run from Winston-Salem to Wadesboro to Hamlet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They go north on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. No trains run over the line on Sunday. However, figuring out in which direction the train will be operating, is a little more complicated than that. The trains depart the respective terminals before midnight, so the southbound trains will go thru Albemarle in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. I've seen a grand total of 2 trains on this line, and both were southbounds around 0735.
Even though there aren't very many trains, the few that do run have plenty of power and zip right along. This is more of a mainline operation than either the ACWR or the NSC branch.
Aberdeen, Carolina & Western
November 4, 2007. Traffic levels have come down from January of 2006, as the nationwide housing meltdown has definitely reduced the dimensional lumber coming into Big Lick. More importantly, someone bought out Banks Lumber company and closed the Stanfield plant -- there is now a fence running directly in the middle of the spur track in the plant. That cost AC&W over 300 cars a year. More GP40's have arrived, and the GP38's are all now gone. They were good workhorses. The recently arrived GP40's are ex-CN, with the red nose and black and white diagonal striping on the long hood. All are to be painted into the green and cream scheme. A single GP40 is the normal power for Oakboro.
January 16, 2006. There has been a steady increase in the traffic on the line during the past few years. Unit trains of grain in Montgomery County have allowed the company to make some good money, with the result that the locomotives have all been repainted into a very attractive green and buff paint scheme. There are 3 GP40's and a couple of GP38's working the line. A GP38 is usually stationed at Oakboro, and works 6 or even 7 days a week.
Dimensional lumber in Oakboro is booming, with Big Lick Wholesale receiving 6-15 cars a week. Banks Lumber in Stanfield (ex-Love Lumber) receives 6-10 cars a week, and Talley Farms in Stanfield receives an occasional covered hopper of grain for its turkey operations. I have seen 12 empty bulkhead flats in Oakboro ready to go east to the Norwood interchange. Add a few aggregate loads in Aquadale, and maybe an empty used oil tank, and you have some pretty good business on the line.
July 12, 2002. This is definitely the most bucolic line in the county. This is the OLD (I mean really old) Norfolk Southern line across the southern (fat) part of the county. Basically, it runs from Star (in Montgomery County, just north of Biscoe) west to Charlotte. There are no branches in Stanly County. Locomotives are all lightweight (GP 7-GP 38), hand-me-downs, and the facilities at Star are worth a short trip, indeed. However, the line is no cutsie tourist road; it is a railroad intent on hauling freight and making a profit for its owners.
ACWR customers in Stanly County are the following:
- In Norwood, there is interchange with the WSSB. This primarily consists of 100-ton hoppers to and from the Carolina Solite crushed rock plant near Aquadale. As of July 2002, there is a good chance of seeing tank cars, as Solite is now burning used oil to dry its aggregate.
- In Oakboro, Locust Lumber unloads lumber and trucks it to their
store in Locust and to job sites. They probably get 1-6 cars or so a
week. On a strictly seasonal basis, the feed mill in town will get a few
cars.
- At Stanfield, Love Lumber receives dimensional lumber in boxcars and bulkhead flats.