Can anyone shed some light on what routing military trains from Richmond and points north used to get to Camp Le Juene NC? One could go ACL to Goldsboro and A&EC to New Bern and then ACL to Jacksonville. One could also go ACL to Selma and then A&EC to New Bern and ACL to Jacksonville.Finally, one could do an all ACL route-Contentnea Jct to Wilmington and then up the branch to Jacksonville. Does anyone have any knowledge of the routing?

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak@mnr.org), February 12, 2004

Answers

Bill:

Thank you for your answer. I should have given the date of the train movements-July 1966. Two trains were routed from Boston, Springfield and Worcester MA to Camp LeJeune.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak@mnr.org), February 13, 2004.

No time frame was mentioned in the original question, so I assume we are talking about World War Two era. Having personally ridden many troop trains during the war, there was no rhyme or reason for some of the routings used by many troop trains. Another possible route in this situation is either C&O from Richmond to Norfolk, Va. thence via the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line to the original Norfolk Southern thence southward on the NS to Marsden, N.C. ( Chocowinity) and south to Newbern and the A&EC connection to Camp LeJuene. And what about south from Richmond on the Seaboard to Raleigh and given over to Southern Railway at Raleigh for the trip East to the A&EC to Camp LeJeune. I recall a troop train trip from Miami, Fl. to Denver, Co. It was FEC to Jacksonville, Fl. where we were handed over to the Southern Railway all the way to East St. Louis, Ill. Jacksonville to Atlanta where we took the CNO&TP Rat Hole route and like to have choked to death from smoke in those tunnels. We took the branch over to Louisville, Ky. and East St. Louis where we picked up the Missouri Pacific and eventually the UP to Denver.

-- Bill Sellers (was2nd@charter.net), February 13, 2004.

Michael - You left out a route. The eastern end of the Camp LeJeune RR was/is a junction with the A&EC at Cherry Point USMC Air Station at Havelock, NC, about 16 miles south of New Bern. The trains could have stayed on the A&EC to the junction, then run almost directly to Hadnot Point on the Camp LeJeune RR, bypassing another trip on the ACL and Jacksonville, NC.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), February 12, 2004.