W-S Southbound Railway Freight Warehouse

The Winston-Salem Southbound Railway is a

short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that oper ...

jointly owned by CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), which provide it with equipment. It connects with NS at the north end in

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...

, CSX at the south end in Wadesboro, and in between with NS at Lexington and

Whitney Whitney may refer to: Film and television * ''Whitney'' (2015 film), a Whitney Houston biopic starring Yaya DaCosta * ''Whitney'' (2018 film), a documentary about Whitney Houston * ''Whitney'' (TV series), an American sitcom that premiered i ...

, the subsidiary

High Point, Thomasville and Denton Railroad The High Point, Thomasville, and Denton Railroad (Reporting mark HPTD) was a 20-mile short-line railroad owned by the jointly CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway owned Winston-Salem Southbound Railway (WSS). The Winston-Salem Southb ...

at High Rock, and the

Aberdeen, Carolina and Western Railway The Aberdeen, Carolina and Western Railway is a short-line railroad running from Aberdeen to Star, North Carolina. It was incorporated in 1987 and operates on a former Norfolk Southern Railway branch line. It also leases track from Norfolk Sout ...

at Norwood. Originally owned jointly by the

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967 it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast L ...

and Norfolk and Western Railway, predecessors to CSX and NS, it was completed in November 1910.Edward A. Lewis, American Shortline Railway Guide, 5th Edition,

Kalmbach Publishing Kalmbach Media (formerly Kalmbach Publishing Co.) is an American publisher of books and magazines, many of them railroad-related, located in Waukesha, Wisconsin. History The company's first publication was ''The Model Railroader'', which be ...

, 1996, pp. 149, 339 In 1957, the railroad retired its last steam locomotive in favor for diesel locomotion. In June 1960 the WSS acquired full control of the connecting

, which is similarly operated with equipment from both owners. Between 1913 and 1985 the railroad was headquartered in the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway Freight Warehouse and Office. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1991. Commodities carried by the railroad are grain, sand, gravel, stone, forest products, paper products, coal, coke, cement, clay fertilizer, aluminum, chemicals, iron, and steel. Principal shippers are Corn Products Company of Winston-Salem, a manufacturer of corn syrup and related products, and Owens Brockway Glass Company of Eller, a manufacturer of glass products. On April 16, 2010, notice was published of the intent to merge the High Point, Thomasville, and Denton Railroad into the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway, effective May 1, 2010.

Motive power

The WSS used a variety of

steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

from 1910 until 1957, since the Norfolk and Western Railway continued to operate with steam power, so there was no hurry to dieselize the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway. On April 22, 1957, the railroad caved-in, and four new

EMD GP9 The EMD GP9 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between 1954 and 1959. The GP9 succeeded the GP7 as the second model of EMD's General Purpose (GP) line, incorporating a new sixteen- cylin ...

diesels arrived, priced at about $190,000 each. With the arrival of diesels, the water tanks and coaling stations of the steam era would soon fall. The four GP9s were purchased from the N&W, and the swiftly-dieselizing ACL; the two companies then in ownership of the WSS. They were re-painted into two different paint schemes and served from the 1950s to the late 1960s, when the WSS, realizing it wasn't cost-effective to maintain servicing facilities, sent the GP9s back to their respective owners and started to lease equipment from the ACL and N&W. To this day, the WSS continues to lease road power from the successors of the ACL (CSX) and N&W (NS). The GP9 units were numbered 1501 (N&W), 1502 (N&W), 1503 (ACL), 1504 (ACL). The latter were the only two GP9 on ACL roster ; one of them was rebuilt to

GP16 The EMD GP16 are a series of rebuilt diesel-electric locomotives, a result of a remanufacturing program initiated by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) in an effort to spare the cost of purchasing new motive power in the late 1970s. This in ...

by the Seaboard Coast Line and still runs today, owned by R.J. Corman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winston Salem Southbound Railway North Carolina railroads Switching and terminal railroads Railway companies established in 1905 Norfolk Southern Railway CSX Transportation 1905 establishments in North Carolina

Motive power

See also

References