New Hope Valley Railway
Posted by: 
showbizkid
N 35° 39.631 W 078° 58.539
17S E 683240 N 3948183
Quick Description: A scenic railroad in rural Chatham County, North Carolina at the old railroad town of Bonsal.
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 7/2/2006 4:22:07 PM
Waymark Code: WMG70
Views: 128
Long Description:
The line that the New Hope Valley Railway scenic railroad takes
was originally called the Durham & South Carolina Railroad and
ran 31 miles from Bonsal to Durham. This line connected with the
Seaboard Airline Railroad at Bonsal and was used to haul, among
other things, tobacco to Durham for processing and finished
cigarettes to market.
The New Hope Valley Railway of today was begun in January 1982
when the East Carolina Chapter, National Railway Historical Society
purchased the tracks and right-of-way in Bonsal and New Hill from
the Southern Railway. This consists of Bonsal Yard, the line
currently operated from Bonsal to New Hill, and a small portion of
the original 1906 track along Beaver Creek Road in Chatham County
just north of Bonsal. The first public ride operations were held in
April of 1984, and it has been operated as a living railroad museum
ever since.
Parking is on the other side of Old U.S. Route 1 from the
terminal. An old railroad bridge has been paved for pedestrians to
take to reach the trains. The terminal has a museum, gift shop and
food vendors with live music.
I took the train trip of about twelve miles round trip. The
locomotive was #399, originally used by the U.S. Marines at Camp
Lejune. Our open air passengers cars were also from Camp Lejune.
They were originally flat beds used to haul equipment. The cabooses
were from the Aberdeen & Rockfish RR and the Seaboard Line.
It was a pleasant trip about 1 1/4 hours in all. Nice forest
scenery along the way. At the New Hill Yard Limit, the engine
decoupled, switched to a siding and passed the cars to travel to
another switch and get back on the main track, then recoupled with
the cars to haul us back to Bonsal. This was the highlight of the
trip and the kids on the train were especially interested in the
engine switching operation.
North of New Hill, the track has been removed and the
right-of-way has been converted into a hiking facility called the
American Tobacco Trail which, when complete will run from New Hill
to
Durham.
To record your own visit to this waymark, take
and post your own original photo of the waymark, and upload it with
your log. Logs must contain the required photo as proof of your
visit, please
NHVRR Ticket Booth. This is where the
posted coordinates are:
Engine Switch at New Hill Yard Limit. The
engine is headed back the way we came to recouple with the other
end and haul us back to Bonsal:
Visit Instructions:
Provide a picture of something with the train. Possible photos
include the entertainment on board the train, the train itself at
any location along the route, a picture of the scenery with part of
the train in view, the kids borrowing the engineer’s hat. Show us
you had a good time visiting the train. If the train isn't running
when you visit get a photo of one of the many railway related items
that can be found in locations like this.