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.