The other day while travelling on I-40 near Winston Salem, we exited the freeway at the Haines Mall area. We crossed over a railroad track to get the the Village Tavern restaurant, and it looked like it was in great shape, but there were no signals at the crossings, IIRC. What RR is this, and is it abandonded?

Wes Woodruff Orlando, FL

-- Wes Woodruff (woodruff_wes@bah.com), October 25, 2003

Answers

Jim: There's a three tier timber trestle near Cooleemee Jct. that's probably the hang-up. Just to put an ACL "spin" on the original question, Southern used the Winston-Salem - Charlotte line to forward R.J.Reynolds cigaretts to their main line for movement west and south. As a joint owner of the WSSB, I suspect ACL received a respectable amount of business from RJR.

-- Harry Bundy (Y6B@aol.com), October 27, 2003.

I live in WS and that line is dead as a hammer. To my knowledge, there is no local traffic on it and the rails are always heavily rusted. I think there is some problem with a bridge farther west that prohibits the line from being used for any type of run through from the south or west. The disrepair of this line prohibits it from being an economical candidate for the wishfull Amtrak route from NY to Asheville, causing Winston Salem to be by-passed by that project (if it ever happens).

-- Jim Coviello (jcovi60516@aol.com), October 26, 2003.

The railroad near Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem had been Southern Railway's Winston-Salem Division. Not sure that the line sees any traffic now, but it had been the route of Southern's CAROLINA SPECIAL and ASHEVILLE SPECIAL. It's still laid in 100# jointed rail rolled in 1950 -- not exactly what you'd expect to see on today's Class 1 railroads.

-- Harry Bundy (Y6B@aol.com), October 26, 2003.