W&W Subdivision
CSX A Line (South End Subdivision) AC 139.0 Contentnea AC 141.9 Black Creek AC 148.6 Fremont AC 152.1 Pikeville Norfolk Southern Railway H Line AC 159.8 Goldsboro Neuse River AC 173.5 Mount Olive AC 177.2 Calypso AC 180.4 Faison AC 188.8 Warsaw Clinton Spur ACA 200.0 Clinton AC 196.5 Magnolia AC 201.7 Rose Hill AC 208.1 Wallace to Wilmington (abandoned)

The W&W Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The line today runs from just south of Wilson, North Carolina, to Wallace, North Carolina, for a total of 69.1 miles. At its north end the line connects to CSX's A Line (South End Subdivision).^[1][2] The line's name stands for the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, the company that originally built the line.

History

The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was completed in 1840 and was the longest railroad in the world at the time of its completion.^[3] In 1899, the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was merged into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL). The Atlantic Coast Line would incorporate the Wilmington and Weldon's main line north of Contentnea (just south of Wilson) into their A Line. The rest of the line south of that point would become the Contentnea—Wilmington Line (C Line), one of the company's secondary main lines. The line would continue to provide service to the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina where the ACL was headquartered from 1900 to 1960.^[4]

In 1909, the ACL realigned the track in Goldsboro to bypass the center of town in conjunction with the opening of Goldsboro Union Station. The line's original alignment along Center Street was removed in 1925.^[5]

By 1949, two daily round-trip passenger trains and a daily through freight train were running the Contentnea—Wilmington Line on their way from Rocky Mount to Wilmington. An additional local freight train ran the line six days a week at the same time.^[6]

In 1967, the ACL merged with its rival, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL), who also served Wilmington via a line that originated in Hamlet (the Wilmington Subdivision). The merged company was named the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL), who designated the line as the W&W Subdivision. By then, only freight trains were running the line.^[7]

In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation. The CSX Corporation initially operated the Chessie and Seaboard Systems separately until 1986, when they were merged into CSX Transportation. Also in 1986, CSX abandoned the W&W Subdivision from Wilmington to Wallace, where the line terminates today.^[8] The Wilmington Subdivision is now CSX's only line serving Wilmington.

Clinton Spur

The Clinton Spur line runs from Warsaw to Clinton for a total of 11.3 miles. Most of the spur is owned and operated by CSX. The end of the spur (approximately 3.53 miles of rail line between milepost 199.0 in Moltonville, NC, and the end of the track at milepost 202.53 in Clinton, NC) was owned and operated by the Clinton Terminal Railroad Company (CTR), originally as the Clinton Division of the Waccamaw Coast Line, from July 1994 until August 2023. Regional Rail announced at the beginning of August 2023 that it had acquired the CTR, and that it would continue to operate, now as the Clinton Branch of the Carolina Coastal Railway (CLNA), a local Class III railroad acquired by Regional Rail in 2020. This “new” branch does not directly connect with any other trackage of the CLNA, relying instead on interchange with CSX in Moltonville. The Clinton Spur was originally built as the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad's Clinton Branch in 1887.

Historic Atlantic Coast Line stations

See also

• List of CSX Transportation lines

References