Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX connector at Pembroke, NC

The new connector at Pembroke, NC was supposed to go into service this morning. For decades there has been a connector in the north quadrant, allowing trains to run Rocky Mount - Hamlet; now there is a connector in the east quadrant, allowing Rocky Mount - Wilmington. Unlike the old connector in the town center, the new one was routed 2 miles around the periphery of Pembroke.

NCDOT had pushed for this project to enhance rail access into the Port of Wilmington; it will also improve access to Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point.

Interestingly enough the ACL had a line to Wilmington that came off the main at Contentnea. Some time early into CSX it was abandoned. It they had kept it there would not have been a need for the new Pembroke connector.
Andy

twropr Wrote:
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> Interestingly enough the ACL had a line to
> Wilmington that came off the main at Contentnea.
> Some time early into CSX it was abandoned. It
> they had kept it there would not have been a need
> for the new Pembroke connector.
> Andy


That was the original route. Rocky Mount -> Wilmington -> Florence. Before the built the cutoff. Most of the line from Contentnea still exists as the W&W Sub, though the last bit into Wilmington is gone, yeah.

The W&W Subdivision was the mainline of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, predecessor of the Atlantic Coast Line, from 1840 until 1895 when the Fayetteville Cuttoff opened. The W&W hosted all traffic between Richmond and the south during this time, including The Florida Special in its early years. Today the W&W is quite busy for a branch line. A few years ago a representative from CSX told me that the W&W received more inbound grain traffic than any other single line on the railroad.

Before 1960 Wilmington was the ACL HQ. There were four ACL lines into Wilmington... the original main line from Contentnea, the original main line from Florence, the southern half of the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley from Sanford, and the line from New Bern. All are broken by abandonment. Ironically, CSX reaches Wilmington over an ex-SAL line.

The state of NC owns the abandoned segment of ex-W&W right-of-way between Wallace and Castle Hayne, preserving it for future rail use. Track was removed following abandonment by CSX. The dream is to operate Raleigh-Wilmington passenger service via that route. With the W&W sub having significant freight traffic, and with CSX having no desire for NS to possibly gain access to Wilmington, there is no timetable for this to happen. Still, the possibility exists. The option of traveling via Pembroke has also been studied.

One wonders how much longer Hamlet Yard will be around now that CSX can manage freight from the north via the new Pembroke connector. Blocks of cars for Wilmington can be set off and picked up in Rocky Mount avoiding Hamlet all together.

Yes, I wonder about that too. The Pembroke connector wasn't meant to be another nail in the coffin for Hamlet, but that's exactly what it may turn out to be. At one time there were coal trains into Wilmington via Hamlet, but those were discontinued five or six years ago when the coal plant near Wilmington was converted to natural gas.