Caronolina Coastal Railway | 7
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Carolina Coastal Railway
WHAT:
Short-line railroad operating 17 miles
of track from Pinetown to Belhaven,
N.C., 142 miles from Raleigh and
Plymouth, N.C. and 20 miles from
Rocky Mount to Spring Hope, N.C.
WHERE:
Wilson, N.C
WEBSITE:
netown, Washington, Chocowinity, Green-
ville, Farmville, Walstonburg, Stantonsburg,
Wilson, Sims, Bailey, Middlesex, Zebulon,
Wendell, Knightdale and Raleigh.
Interchanges are made at Norfolk South-
ern’s Chocowinity and Glenwood (Raleigh)
yards and connections with CSX are avail-
able at Greenville and Wilson.
Those 142 miles, Golden said, signaled
the moment when things went from small to
less small.
“All of a sudden, we went from this little
17-mile railroad with not much happen-
ing, to a fairly large operation,” he said. “On
start-up day of the new operation we had 10
employees and a couple of part-time people,
andwe were struggling to find locomotives at
that time. We had two, and a third en route
on start-up day. And we have grown consid-
erably just since then.”
In 2010, Coastal Carolina began serving
the Port of Morehead City on a one-mile
spur between Radio Island and Morehead
City, where additional connection with
Norfolk Southern is also possible. In 2011, it
added a 20-mile line from a connection with
CSX at Rocky Mount to Spring Hope. The
locomotive fleet has grown to 19 units and
