52 | Business World Magazine |
April 2014
spring, and not much happens over the sum-
mer.
“In this case, in the fall nothing moved,
but there was business that was moving. It
just wasn’t moving by rail. Our work kind of
started getting that business moving back to
rail right after the first of the next year andour
business started picking up. We developed a
couple of new customers. We worked really
hard to get some customers who were there
and hadn’t shipped for a long, long time to
start shipping again, and all of a sudden traf-
fic started growing again pretty quickly.”
Golden had two part-time employ-
ees upon taking over the business, and, he
said with a chuckle, that was only because
it takes two people to run the train. Those
two would come in once or twice a week as
needed to provide service with the line’s one
locomotive. Growth in traffic prompted a
need for more regular service and warranted
the addition of both a full-timer and another
part-timer. And, in 2007, Golden took over
a nearby 142-mile line from Norfolk South-
ern that connected Raleigh to Plymouth.
The longer line intersects with Coast-
al Carolina’s other line at Pinetown and
includes major stations at Plymouth, Pi-
