There was an earlier question about passenger service between New Bern and Wilmington on the ACL. Service ended there in the late 30s when a mixed train carrying passengers.

However, I have heard at least two people in the local area state that they rode passenger trains between the two points in the 60's.

One person I spoke to early this week said that his grandfather took him on the "last train from New Bern to Wilmington" sometime around 1962.

Was ther a railfan trip in that era?

-- Pete Wenk (petewenk@nccoast.com), July 10, 2003

Answers

Not down the old New Bern Sub. because it was gone with the exception of about 5 miles of track between Marine Jct and New Kellum. Nothing north of New Kellum and nothing south of Marine Jct remained after 82 or 83. I have a copy of the abandonment notice of the line.

-- Raymond Smith (aclrr7@hotmail.com), August 30, 2003.

In the late 50's and EARLY 60's ACL ran the Azalea Festival specials. They ran once only once a year. There were no other passenger trains in the 60's on that line. I grew up on that line and knew mos tof the ACL people.

-- Raymond Smith (aclrr7@hotmail.com), August 30, 2003.

Regarding military movements on the Wilmington-New Bern line -- at the beginning of the Iraq conflict, NS originated a military impedimenta movement from Camp LeJeune to the port of Wilmington. Care to guess the route the train was obliged to take ? Mileage ?

-- Harry Bundy (Y6B@aol.com), August 24, 2003.

In the Official Guide of 1960, Atlantic Coast Line Table No. 11 shows "freight and express service available only between Wilmington and Newbern. Obviously, nobody rode a passenger train of any kind, either regular or mixed, from 1960 forward. As a locomotive fireman out of Wilmington in 1942, the only passenger equipment I ever saw on that branch was heavyweight pullman cars used when I fired troop trains between Wilmington and Holly Ridge Army Camp pulled by 2-8-0 700 class consolidations. Most passenger service in both Wilmington and Newbern was of necessity to points further inland. There was not enough passenger travel between Wilmington and Newbern to sustain regular passenger service after the advent of the automobile.

-- Bill Sellers (was2nd@charter.net), August 23, 2003.