Nostalgia & History > Warrenton Railroad, North Carolina

Back on Sept. 9, TO member Apalachicola721 posted a request on the Eastern board for information on the Warrenton Railroad, but I didn't have my slides handy at the time. He got several good replies, but I thought I would add my two cents anyway. I visited Warrenton on July 4, 1977 and found engine 7 (in Bicentennial colors) parked next to the station, with engines 5 and 6 farther down in the yard. No one was around, and I didn't see any interchange freight cars anywhere in town. I recall reading something at the time that said the railroad was owned by the city and operated by a local NRHS chapter.

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The Town of Warrenton owned most, but not all, of the common stock of the railroad. By the time abandonment was near, the railroad was "controlled and operated" (according to the RRB) by Willard Formyduval who, at the time, also had the Aberdeen & Briar Patch Railway in North Carolina and the Hartwell Railway in Georgia. I don't know what became of the assets of the Warrenton when it was dissolved, except that the tract of land in Warrenton for the railroad is in private ownership now. As far as I know, no NRHS chapter was ever involved.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/21 05:30 by ctillnc.

From the Jsan. 20, 1975 Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER), is this information on the Warrenton Railroad:

WARRENTON RAILROAD COMPANY
P.O. Box 518, Warrenton, N.C. 27589

Reporting Marks WAR
H.F. Oakley, Superintendent & Agent
Miles of road operated: 3
Equipment: Locomotives, diesel electric, 2
Freight cars owned:  None. *
Freight connections and junction points: Warren Plains, N.C.

* WAR had a huge fleet of covered hoppers painted in a light shade of blue, numbered in the hundreds, often known to haul loads of Phosphate -- but apparently this was later than this particualr ORER volume.  I'll try to find the car numbers in another ORER book and post them here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/21 05:50 by rbx551985.

Rare catches.
Bob

ctillnc Wrote:
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> The Town of Warrenton owned most, but not all, of
> the common stock of the railroad. By the time
> abandonment was near, the railroad
> was "controlled and operated" (according to the
> RRB) by Willard Formyduval who, at the time, also
> had the Aberdeen & Briar Patch Railway in North
> Carolina and the Hartwell Railway in Georgia. I
> don't know what became of the assets of the
> Warrenton when it was dissolved, except that the
> tract of land in Warrenton for the railroad is in
> private ownership now. As far as I know, no NRHS
> chapter was ever involved.
The 1975 edition of the American Shortline Railway Guide said "The railroad is controlled by the Town of Warrenton (75%), the County of Warrenton, and others." The next edition (1978) said "The railroad is controlled by Walter A. Martin." The third edition (1986) had no listing of the railroad. I don't remember where I read that a railfan organization operated the line (it has been 40+ years), but the suggestion that a common-carrier railroad (even that small) was being operated by a group of non-professionals really stuck in my mind. It was probably in a railfan magazine, but I didn't keep those.

There is an anecdote that an NRHS member in Raleigh who later became a prominent SCL and Amtrak engineer (and author) got his first throttle time as a railfan on the Warrenton. Unofficially, of course. I ran a GM&O RS-1 when I was a kid, but that didn't mean that elementary school students were operating the GM&O B line.

Another anecdote: after CSX discontinued service on the Norlina-Weldon line that connected to the Warrenton at Warren Plains, CSX granted trackage rights Norlina-Warren Plains (2 miles) so that the Warrenton could interchange cars at Norlina.  



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/21 05:04 by ctillnc.