A&R History

In the south central part of North Carolina, the Aberdeen & Rockfish railroad has done something remarkable for over 100 years: Its trains have been fighting an uphill battle with the undulating profiles of the Sandhills country and winning freight traffic and profitability in the process. That alone is just cause for a Centennial Celebration for a 45-mile line that started as a logging road in the late 1800s, then recast itself into a mini-bridge route carrier and today serves as the healthy parent of a second profitable shortline. But what makes the A&R even more noteworthy is the kind of endearing features which inspired legendary rail author Lucius Beebe to devote five pages to the A&R in his classic 1947 short line tribute “Mixed Train Daily”.

The allure of the A&R that fascinated Beebe almost 50 years ago included decorative eagles on locomotive smoke box doors, the A&R’s first-place ranking in the alphabetized Official Railway Guide and its homespun “jitney” passenger service. That A&R spunk was apparent to Beebe, who wrote of the A&R’s “charm of the improbable which derives from a highly solvent and briskly functioning railroad far off the beaten track of conventional commerce and travel.

Indeed, the A&R’s remote location kept it little remarked, but the modern A&R still has appeal: its headquarters, a two-story Federalist-style building in namesake Aberdeen, is one of the most impressive structures in town. The A&R keeps its diesels maintained for the short but tough 2.5% Bethesda Hill grade out of Aberdeen. The line’s quaint steam-era shops are located down the street from the sweet magnolia blooms and breathtaking mansions of Aberdeen where some of the homes belong to members of the Blue family, the A&R’s only owner in the century of existence. In short, the Aberdeen & Rockfish is the kind of short line dreams are made of – with a hard-reality ability to survive and prosper.