WILSON, N.C. — Shortline company Regional Rail will acquire the Carolina Coastal Railway, which operates about 180 miles of track in North and South Carolina.
Regional Rail announced the deal today. It is subject to approval by the Surface Transportation Board.
Carolina Coastal (reporting mark CLNA) operates a 142-mile route between Raleigh and Plymouth, N.C. and a 17-mile line between Belhaven and Pinetown, N.C. It also provides switching services for the Port of Morehead City, N.C. It serves more than 45 customers and provides car-storage services.
Regional Rail’s most recent acquisition was of three Pinsly Railroad Co. lines in Florida, a deal finalized in January. [see “Regional Rail to acquire Pinsly’s Florida railroads,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 29, 2019.]It also operate three railroads in the northeastern U.S., the East Penn, Middletown & New Jersey, and Tyburn railroads.
Regional Rail CEO Al Sauer said in a press release that the Carolina Coastal “benefits from and attractive mix of industrial customers and further diversifies our existing freight-rail platform from an end-market and geographic perspective.” Coastal Carolina president Doug Golden said he had been “looking for the right partner to continue our legacy and am pleased that Coastal Carolina is becoming part of the Regional Rail family.”
The Raleigh to Plymouth segment is part of the old Norfolk and Southern which ran from Norfolk, VA to Charlotte, NC via Raleigh. The 1985 Rand McNally railroad atlas shows it as the Carolina and Northwestern.
I believe the Durham and Southern was taken over by the Seaboard Coast Line who abandoned most of it.
No; the D&S was absorbed by the Original Norfolk Southern, but ut did not reach Raleigh. Plymouh is east of Raleigh, on the NS line from Norfolk to Raleigh (which was broken several years ago.
Was this line at one time, part of the Durham and Southern RR?