Eastern North Carolina Route

[demando]

Alrighty, folks. For the sake of since I am now a California escapee, I have decided to tackle a big area, the Eastern half of North Carolina.
Seeing as how much older the NCRR (North Carolina Railroad) route is, I decided at first that I was going to focus my attention to the Fayetteville area, since I'm stationed in the area. But as I started figuring out kml files, I decided to do as much of a chunk of the eastern half of the state, but realized I should include the NCRR as well, and include some of the states shortline roads, namely ACWR, A&R, RFCS, and CLNA.
Screenshot 2026-08-25 230302.png

Starting in Fayetteville proper, here's a view looking from the station north, missing some crossover switches.
Screenshot 2026-08-25 230350.png

Finished adding the crossover.
Screenshot 2026-08-26 165640.png

Anyways, my plan is to start here and work my way north to the state line with VA, and south to the state line near Pembroke - midway between Pembroke, NC and Dillon, SC. More to follow.

[landnrailroader]

That is a rail line I am pretty familiar with. Further south, there is a passing siding called "Green Pond", about 1/2 way between N. Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. In 1994, Amtrak was accusing the M/W folks at CSX of delaying their trains, especially the AutoTrain. Made no sense to us (I was manager of the CAD system in the signal dept. which is part of engineering as is M/W) because the AutoTrain ran at night and little or no M/W work was done after dark. So the VP-Engr. a very nice guy set up teams to ride all the Amtrak trains on the system to see what was happening. I got Tues. & Thurs. leaving Jacksonville around 7am, getting to N. Charleston about 11am where I was relieved and spent the day in a motel room. Then about 9pm, back to Jacksonville. Every night, we held the main at Green Pond to meet the AutoTrain. Now the Palmetto, which I was on, was a F-40 plus a bagge car and 2 or 3 coaches. AutoTrain was a lot of head end power and around 30 cars in all, and roughly 1/2 mile long. The siding was a 15mph signalled siding and I asked the engineer if this was a regular thing. He said it was and then he radioed to the conductor on the A-train and got the delay time for me, about 30 minutes. Found out that the new computerized dispatch system was holding the first train to arrive on the mainline. That was changed so that the heaviest passenger train held the main, end of problem. If we, having arrived first, had piddled on down to the south end and waited, the A-train could have passed at track speed, 79mph, and we would have been up to track speed in less than a mile. The Palmetto still runs I think, but for several years it has terminated in Savannah.

Jerry (aka landnrailroader)

[demando]

That's a fun little story. I only am able to catch the first northbound in the afternoon, I forget which train it is. When I first arrived in the area, I rented a car and found myself trackside just north of Parkton, and just sat there watching the freights and Amtrak roll by under the freeway. I forgot Auto Train passes through Fayetteville. I've yet to see it in person but there's still time. I plan to follow your example, meaning I'm just putting in track and roads, and limited scenery.

[landnrailroader]

AutoTrain goes through Fayetteville northbound around 3am, and southbound around 1am. I must have a thing for NC gals. My first serious love was from Statesville. My late wife was from Washington and my wife of now 32 years is from Burlington. I'm originally from Nashville, TN. Worked for the Southern out of Alexandria, VA and Chessie in Huntington, WV until CSX formed up and then I was moved to Jacksonville 40 years ago.

Jerry

[demando]

My ma has a rental home she bought in Jacksonville, but me personally, I fell in love with Tennessee from Chattanooga east to Bristol. I plan to move to that part of the state whenever I get out of the military.

[jbtower]

Jerry your stories are always fascinating. Thanks for another share!
Stephan you mentioned stationed; are you military?

[demando]

Stephan you mentioned stationed; are you military?

I am active duty Army, just hit my first promotion from PFC to SPC.

[jbtower]

I am active duty Army, just hit my first promotion from PFC to SPC.

Thank you for your service and congratulations on your promotion!

[dlfrenchmd]

I am currently working on Autotrain route from Petersburg, VA to Florence, SC with a subsequent finish to Sanford. This will go with the RF&P modification previously uploaded. Here is my rendition of downtown Fayetteville with my version of the station. Lots of artistic license, I know.
Dan

Fayetteville1.jpg

Fayetteville2.jpg