Bonsal is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in the

New Hill, North Carolina New Hill is an unincorporated community located in southwestern Wake County, North Carolina, United States, at the crossroads of old U.S. 1 (State Road 1011, running northeast–southwest), New Hill Olive Chapel Road (running north) and New Hil ...

postal district, in extreme southwestern

Wake County, North Carolina Wake County, officially the County of Wake, is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 1,129,410, making it North Carolina's List of coun ...

, United States. Bonsal was a railroad junction between the Durham & South Carolina Railroad (D&SC) (originally chartered as the New Hope Valley Railroad) and the

Seaboard Air Line Railroad The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , known colloquially as the Seaboard Railroad during its time, was an American railroad that existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime ri ...

(originally the

Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad The Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad was a North Carolina railroad that operated in the second half of the 19th century. History Early years The Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad traces its history back to the early 1850s, when the line ...

). The New Hope Valley Railroad route was abandoned in the late 1970s. The original name of the community was Godsey after the Godsey Farm in the area, but this was changed to Bonsal in 1905 after William Roscoe Bonsal, builder and first President of the Durham & South Carolina Railroad (see below). The community was briefly incorporated from 1907 to 1917 to allow the citizens to vote in favor of bills supporting temperance and prohibition. The town charter was revoked in 1917 when the citizens, having accomplished their purpose for being incorporated at all, refused to pay town taxes. Bonsal is now the site of the

North Carolina Railway Museum The New Hope Valley Railway , also known as the Triangle's Train, is a heritage railway, heritage railroad in Bonsal, North Carolina operated by the North Carolina Railway Museum, Inc., an all-volunteer, nonprofit, and tax exempt educational and ...

(NCRM) and the operating

New Hope Valley Railway The New Hope Valley Railway , also known as the Triangle's Train, is a heritage railroad in Bonsal, North Carolina operated by the North Carolina Railway Museum, Inc., an all-volunteer, nonprofit, and tax exempt educational and historical organ ...

(NHVRy) tourist line. The line owns approximately 6 miles of track between Bonsal and

, operating for passengers on the first Sunday of each month from May to November and both Saturday and Sunday the first two weekends in December. Other special event trains are operated at other times throughout the year. The railway north of

has been converted into the

American Tobacco Trail The American Tobacco Trail (ATT) is a long Rails-to-Trails project located in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina, running along an abandoned railroad bed originally built for the American Tobacco Company in the 1970s. The route cr ...

External links

New Hope Valley Railroad & NC Railroad Museum

The American Tobacco Trail

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Wake County, North Carolina Unincorporated communities in North Carolina