Raleigh and Gaston Railroad
The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad was a Raleigh, North Carolina, based railroad opened in April 1840[1] between Raleigh and the town of Gaston, North Carolina, on the Roanoke River. It was North Carolina's second railroad (the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad opened one month earlier). The length was 100 miles (160 km) and built with 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) gauge.[2] The Raleigh and Gaston's tracks remains in service today as part of CSX's S Line as the Norlina Subdivision of CSX's Florence Division.

History
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The railroad built the Franklinton Depot in 1886.[3] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.[4]
The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1900 and became a segment of their main line. Seaboard eventually became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967 and then CSX Transportation by 1986. CSX abandoned the S Line (the designation for the former Seaboard Air Line main line) north of Norlina into Virginia in 1985 (the next active segment of the S Line north is CSX's Bellwood Subdivision).[5]
List of stations
Below is a list of stations along the Raleigh and Gaston railroad:[6]
- Raleigh
- Huntsville
- Neuse
- Forestville
- Wake Forest
- Youngsville
- Franklinton
- Kittrell
- Brookston
- Exchange
- Manson
- Ridgeway
- Warren Plains
- Macon
- Littleton
- Gaston
- Weldon
References
- The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad
- Confederate Railroads - Raleigh & Gaston
- T .H. Pearce and Michael T. Southern (October 1990). "Franklinton Depot" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-11-01.
- "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- "The Norlina Subdivision". Rails in Virginia. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
- "North Carolina Railroads - Raleigh & Gaston Railroad". www.carolana.com. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
External links
- North Carolina Office of Archives and History: Marker E-22: Raleigh and Gaston Railroad
- CSA-railroads.com: Raleigh & Gaston Railroad
- DocSouth: Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad Company
- NY Times: Raleigh and Gaston shareholders approve Seaboard consolidation
- NPS: Early History -- Raleigh: A Capital City
- NC Go - History of Transportation - 1800-1850