Durham & Northern RW

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Looking for anything on the Durham & Northern operation between Durham, NC and Henderson, NC from prior to the turn of the century until it was torn up. Interested in historical data, track chart, photographs (equipment and structures), and equipment inventories.

-- Norman G. Dean III (deancrof@gloryroad.net), September 05, 1999

Answers

I've collected several photographs from my good friend Curt Tillotson Jr. of trains operating on that line from the 60's to the mid 70's. Excellent quality. My favorite shows the train making a round trip on the Oxford-Dickerson spur. The line was embargoed between Durham and Creedmore in 1972. SCL diverted it's southbound interchange traffic on to the Durham & Southern Railway. In 1979 they abandoned that section so it could be flooded by a new dam. The remaining line was operated by a turn out of Norlina, NC via Henderson, NC powered by light weight U18B'S until 1983{?}.

-- richard lea (grandsound@hotmail.com), May 20, 2002.

The Durham & Northern R.R., as a seperate entity, lasted from 1889 to July 1900, when it was consolidated into the S.A.L., although it had been controlled by the Seaboard by 1893. It was laterly the Durham Subdivision of the S.A.L. Post World War II the branch had a speed limit of 25mph and diesel power was limited to EMD SW1, NW2, BLW V0, and Alco S1 and RSC-2/RSC-3 types. Major on-line customers were Carolina Power & Light just west of Henderson, Halifax Paper Co. at Joyland, and Public Service Co. and Hunt Bros. Lumber Co. in Durham. As for rolling stock, in June 1897 the D&N had 2 locos, 1 coach, 1 combine, i baggage/express/mail and 21 boxcars. There was probably a caboose or two, but that isn't listed in my sources. Following consolidation into S.A.L., the rolling stock would have been supplied by the Seaboard.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), January 30, 2000.

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