Sometime prior to 1943, the ACL opened a branch from Delco, just west of Wilmington, NC, north about a mile to Acme. Anybody have the exact date the ACL began use of this branch, and what the traffic consisted of?

-- Tom Underwood (tlu1650@attglobal.net), January 17, 2005

Answers

my records show the acl line from wilmington to chadbourne built as a 5' guage line in 1846. it was rebuilt to standard guage in 1865. as for the acme spur, i assume it was built to either access riegel- carolina paperboard plant or kaiser agricultural chemicals. probably became redundant after scl merger in 1967 since the sal wilmington- hamlet line passed through acme as well. i'm sure acl wanted in on the traffic to riegelwood. riegel-carolina became federal paper board corp., it was purchased by international paper in 1996. it might help to research the company's history. the wilmington- whiteville line was abandoned in 1977.

-- richard lea (grandsound@hotmail.com), January 17, 2005.