The A&R seems to have taken the Great Depression in stride. The line was among the first in the country to buy trucks to provide door-to-door service from the railhead to off-line businesses, doing so in 1931. Three years later, when the city of Fayetteville decided to build a cargo terminal on the Cape Fear River, the A&R fulfilled a 20-year dream of a rail-water connection and extended its main line about 1.5 miles to the river. Though the distance wasn’t great, the A&R’s action provided the city with the last requirement needed so revenue bonds could be issued to pay for the project. The terminal, of course, became yet another source of traffic for the A&R, initially bulk oil shipments brought off Atlantic shipping lanes, up the Cape Fear and delivered inland from the A&R
The A&R was no different from many of the nation’s trunk railroads during World War II. Swamped with traffic, running around the clock to keep up with the demands for war materials, troop movements and civilian needs, the A&R put in a yeoman’s performance. And it had to. During the war, the Fort Bragg base was expanded, and much of the materials for the new buildings and renovations traveled over the A&R. This level of activity necessitated the suspension of one of the longest-standing rules on the Blue Family’s railroad: A strict Presbyterian clan, they did not believe in running the A&R on Sundays. For the war, things changed while as many as five steam locomotives at one time were in operation to keep up with the flood of 18 and 20-car troop trains rolling double headed across the Sandhills.
The war changed more than just the days the A&R ran. The sleepy Raeford depot, which had lost its place of importance with dwindling passenger traffic more than a generation before, got a facelift as a rest stop for weary servicemen riding the A&R.
Even “Time Magazine” recognized the importance of the A&R to the war effort. In its August 5, 1940, edition, Time declared: “Last week A&R had become a vital link in the U.S.’s national defense system. Over its contorted route moved tons of material to refurbish Fort Bragg…A&R’s freight and passenger traffic to Fort Bragg was already up 15% over last year.”
Some new 80-lb rail was installed, and a 100-car yard was built at Skibo in a $20,000 improvement project. This was big time for the A&R, which still had to take a ribbing from Fort Bragg officials used to a bigger and more direct rail line and said so. A&R official Henry Blue pointed out the strategic benefits of the A&R’s snakelike route: “Hitler’s bombers couldn’t hit it twice on a bet.” They never did, of course, and years later Henry Blue would put the little line’s contribution in perspective by noting that more than 1 million soldiers rode over the A&R during World War II
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