Northbound Palmetto
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around, the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing around town.
By far the dominant railroad in Fayetteville is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city. The city was also served by the Norfolk Southern at the time that came down tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern. As of the date of this post that branch survives and has just been taken over by a new R.J. Corman owned shortline.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
Here is northbound Amtrak train 90, the Palmetto, about 5 hrs into its 16 hr and 830 mile trip from Savanna to New York City. A single P42DC leads 7 cars pulling to a stop beside the Dutch Colonial Style brick depot built by the Atlantic Coast Line in 1911 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are on Main 2 of CSXT's South End Sub at MP A209.7.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015
Northbound Palmetto
Fayetteville, the seat of Cumberland County North Carolina is most widely known as the home of the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The city itself is larger than expected with a population of around 210,000 but has a reputation as kind of a tough town. It is so rough that soldiers stationed on post are advised to avoid downtown “Fayette-nam” as it’s derisively referenced. But to the visiting railfan willing to take a look around, the city has a surprisingly lot to offer. And while I wouldn’t call it a particularly inviting place, I in no way felt ill at ease or unsafe photographing around town.
By far the dominant railroad in Fayetteville is CSXT with their south end subdivision, the former Atlantic Coast Line main, seeing the passage of dozens of daily freight trains and four daily Amtrak trains on an 11 mile stretch of double track through the city. The city was also served by the Norfolk Southern at the time that came down tri-weekly on a 43 mile branch from Fuquay-Varina that was an ORIGINAL pre-1974 Norfolk Southern. As of the date of this post that branch survives and has just been taken over by a new R.J. Corman owned shortline.
And those roads both interchange with the famous and always independent shortline Aberdeen and Rockfish that calls Fayetteville the eastern endpoint of its 47 mile route.
CSXT also operates two branchlines out of the city, both of which are remaining stubs of the one time Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad dating from the 1880s.
Here is northbound Amtrak train 90, the Palmetto, about 5 hrs into its 16 hr and 830 mile trip from Savanna to New York City. A single P42DC leads 7 cars pulling to a stop beside the Dutch Colonial Style brick depot built by the Atlantic Coast Line in 1911 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are on Main 2 of CSXT's South End Sub at MP A209.7.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Friday May 29, 2015