In 1987 the A&R got a new president well-known in short line railroading, and the line set about growing through the acquisition of nearby CSX branches. Ed Lewis, whose resume includes the nation’s oldest short line and biggest tourist carrier, the Strasburg Railroad, and Vermont’s legendary Lamoille Valley railroad as well as the Twin States Railroad, came to the A&R in January 1987. Lewis, best known among rail enthusiasts as author of Kalmbach’s American Shortline Railway Guide, didn’t take much time to make an impact on the Carolinas short line world.
In October 1987, the A&R became the parent road for the Pee Dee River Railway Corp., a 15-mile line between McColl and Marlboro just across the border in South Carolina. Marlboro County purchased the line following CSX abandonment and leased the operation to the A&R’s Pee Dee River Railway s
ubsidiary. Initially A&R GP-7 #205 went South to operate the new line, but a rebuilt CF7 painted in a simplified version of the A&R’s turquoise and orange paint scheme has made its home in Bennettsville. Traffic on the Pee Dee line included pulpwood, fertilizer and other goods but has much expanded in the last two years following the opening of a $350,000,000 paper mill. The line now operates seven days a week serving the Domtar paper mill, two Flakeboard mills, Mohawk Carpet, Hanson Aggregates and Southern States.
In the last month of 1987, the A&R purchased the 5.6 mile long Dunn-Erwin Railroad, the southernmost stem of the former Durham & Southern Railway, which joined CSX predecessor Seaboard Coast line in 1976. Although, the line north of Erwin was abandoned, the short segment was still a vital connection for a denim plant in Erwin. An SW1200, assigned for a time to the Pee Dee River then transferred to the Dunn-Erwin line, picks up cars off the CSX interchange track in Dunn. Following the closing of Erwin Mills, the line was abandoned. At the conclusion of 2007, Ed Lewis and Paul McArdle retired. Succeeding them are Garland Horton and Paul Barnes, respectively.
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