The Early Years: 1900-1957

In 1904, a group of investors led by William Roscoe Bonsal set out to build a 20-mile railroad connecting Bonsal, North Carolina—named for Mr. Bonsal—to West End, North Carolina (now known as Carrboro). At the time, Bonsal was also serving as Vice President of the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad, which later consolidated with 20 other railroads to form the Seaboard Air Line. One of its main lines passed through Bonsal, located just over 20 miles southwest of Raleigh.

The proposed railroad was intended to provide access to an important railroad tie exchange in West End. These ties were expected to play a key role as rail lines continued expanding across North Carolina. Because the planned route would pass through the valley of the New Hope River basin, the line was to be called the New Hope Valley Railroad Company.

However, after securing land rights for the new railroad—but before any track was laid—Bonsal and his investors merged their planned line with another group of railroad investors in less than a year. This second group was affiliated with the American Tobacco Company (ATC) in Durham and the original Norfolk & Southern Railroad (N&S).

The merged vision expanded the project significantly. The proposed line would run approximately 30 miles from Durham to Bonsal and then continue another 10 miles southeast to Duncan, North Carolina, where the Norfolk & Southern operated a main line between Raleigh and Charlotte. The newly planned 40-mile railroad became known as the Durham & South Carolina Railroad (D&SC).

While the line never reached South Carolina, the entire 40 miles of track were constructed quickly and cheaply using manual labor, mules, and secondhand rail from the late 1880s. Much of the low-grade rail was laid with ties placed almost directly on the ground, with very little ballast or drainage.

The Durham & South Carolina Railroad (D&SC) began operations between Durham and Bonsal by 1906 and extended service to Duncan within another year. A reminder of this history still exists today in Duncan, where a gas station features an old-fashioned building that once served as the D&SC’s Duncan depot before being relocated there after the line was abandoned.

The D&SC was the only railroad with tracks leading directly into the American Tobacco Company factory in Durham. The Norfolk & Southern Railway (N&S) was encouraged to acquire the D&SC at the request of one of its major shareholders, the American Tobacco Company (ATC), which wanted a reliable, in-house means of transporting tobacco to and from its factory. By 1920, the entire D&SC was “leased” by the N&S.  (Photo: Ten-Wheeler Locomotive (4-6-0) built in 1905 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia for the D&SC)

As more surrounding land was developed for farming, the D&SC also carried agricultural products such as cotton, corn, and lumber. Passenger service was provided by a single mixed train that connected with the N&S in Duncan, the Seaboard Air Line (SAL) in Bonsal, and other rail lines in Durham.

Because the original track construction was so poor, derailments were common, requiring trains to operate at very slow speeds. The line continued to be known as the D&SC until 1957, when it was officially absorbed into the N&S and later commonly referred to as the N&S Durham & Duncan Branch.

To see the New Hope Valley Railroad’s 1904 charter and its 1905 merger with the Durham & South Carolina Railroad, please refer to the documents at the bottom of this page.

The Later Years: 1958-1982  

The N&S continued operating the former D&SC as a freight-only branch line through the 1960s and 1970s. However, as track conditions steadily deteriorated and freight revenues declined, the line became an increasingly likely candidate for abandonment.

During this same period, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began implementing a flood control project designed to protect eastern North Carolina from severe flooding, such as that caused by a powerful hurricane in 1945. In April 1969, the Army Corps of Engineers entered into a relocation agreement with the D&SC to move the rail line from the New Hope River basin to higher ground in preparation for the construction of the New Hope Dam and Reservoir—later known as Jordan Lake.

The new line branched off the original route about 1,000 feet south of what is now I-40 at a location known as Penny, near today’s Southpoint shopping center, and rejoined the original line in Bonsal in Wake County. This new “bypass” line was completed in late 1973.

On January 1, 1974, the N&S was acquired by the Southern Railway (SOU), one of the largest railroad systems in the South at the time. In March of that year, the New Hope Reservoir was filled, and the newly constructed 20-mile bypass line built by the Army Corps of Engineers was turned over to the Southern Railway. The acquisition made the line largely redundant for the SOU, casting doubt on its future.

The line southeast to Duncan had already fallen into disrepair and had been abandoned several years earlier. Around 1979, Southern began the formal process of abandoning the remaining line and planned to remove the track between Durham and Bonsal. Although use of the line was very limited by this time, a few trains still operated over portions of it. Service continued on a section southeast of Bonsal to deliver materials for the construction of the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant.

A New Beginning: 1982-Present Day

American Tobacco Trail. From there, the American Tobacco Trail follows the former railbed north all the way into downtown Durham. In recognition of William Roscoe Bonsal and his fellow investors’ original 1904 plans to build the New Hope Valley Railroad, the ECC NRHS chose to name their preserved line the New Hope Valley Railway (NHVR).