I n 1912, with most of the trees cut down and the turpentine business waning, the A&R abandoned its Endon line and used the rails to build a branch from Raeford south to Wagram. At about the same time the ACL-backed Laurinburg & Southern Railroad Company, another short line to the south and east of the A&R, was building a rail line north toward Raeford and Fayetteville, one of the largest trading centers in the southeastern North Carolina. Had the A&R not built south to meet the L&S, it could have found itself stifled.
Seeing its halcyon days as a logger drawing to a close, the A&R began building its own line from Rockfish toward Fayetteville and an important junction with two ACL lines and the Norfolk Southern Railway’s branch from Fuquay-Varina, near the state capital of Raleigh.
.The late 1912 arrival of the A&R in Fayetteville led to one of the most fascinating legends in A&R history. Although correspondence from the period suggests otherwise, it is told that giant Atlantic Coast Line didn’t think too highly of the upstart A&R coming into Fayetteville and siphoning off traffic that could be turned over to arch-rival Seaboard Air Line at Aberdeen. The story goes that the A&R had planned to cross the ACL at grade just south of downtown Fayetteville, and the big carrier snubbed the shortlines’s requests for a diamond. Undaunted, John Blue ordered his railroad built right up to the ACL’s tracks on the west side and continued on the east side into Fayetteville. Then, late one night in December 1912, the A&R built itself a diamond. It seems the A&R loaded all of the ties, trac
k laborers, their tools and some rails, took them to the site of the ACL crossing and put them to work before the ACL knew what was happening. Apparently the work went quickly, and somebody knew the ACL’s schedules, for no trains derailed during this operation – if, in fact, it happened this way. Seeing itself defeated, the ACL apparently didn’t complain, according to the legend, although papers show ACL corresponding favorably in the fall of 1912 concerning the need for an interlocking for the A&R crossing. Nevertheless, the story stands to this day, and the A&R still crosses ACL successor CSX where they say the midnight rail gang did its work. The first train, a passenger run on December 23, 1912, reached Fayetteville with John Blue on board.
The arrival of the first A&R train captured the imagination of the people of Fayetteville. Here was John Blue, a Cumberland County country boy, back in his home county in command of an avenue of commerce; the Fayetteville business community was so impressed that in early 1913 it put on a special dinner honoring Blue. Said a commemorative booklet called Farmer Boy to Railroad President: “His career should be an inspiration to every boy who wants to make good in life, provided the boy is not afraid of the struggles and the hardships and the hard work that comes into the making of a strong character.” Of course, there was a pitch to the readers of the booklet: “It would be so easy to route via SAL and A&R, and it would mean so much to this man who is one of you and who is doing so much to develop the country along his line, which in the long run means that he is helping Fayetteville.“
With the completion of the Fayetteville line, the A&R line from Rockfish to Hope Mills was abandoned. The A&R now had an impressive list of connections, no less than five interchange partners. None of the on-line communities, save Aberdeen or Fayetteville, was of much industrial consequence at the time, but the country was a thriving agricultural area producing a bounty of crops. Cotton was the mainstay, but peaches and watermelons were important seasonal crops that found their way onto the rails of the A&R. By one estimation, there was a siding for agricultural loading an average of every 1 1/2 miles on the A&R.
Passenger service at this time was provided by a daily train leaving Aberdeen in the morning, arriving in Fayetteville at midday and returning in the evening. In addition, a mixed train originating in Fayetteville operated on a schedule opposite the passenger train. One round trip was made daily down the Wagram branch
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