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Saturday, September 13, 2008 3:00 AM Putting the tracks to work Short-line freight train service delivers for local customers By Eddie Fitzgerald | Times Staff Writer In a small railroad yard off Black Creek Road, Kelly Bass and Jason Black shuffled boxcars, moving them to side tracks, rearranging them for final designations to local industries. Bass, the engineer, was taking directions from Black, the conductor, who hung off the back of the last boxcar, communicating with a handheld radio. "Three ... Two ... One." Black counted down the lengths of imaginary boxcars so the train would slow before hooking up with the next boxcar. Both men work for Wilson's Carolina Coastal Railway, a short-line freight train service that moves products in and out of area industries and businesses. A year ago CCR owned only 17 miles of track between Pinetown and Belhaven, but this summer it leased from Norfolk Southern an additional 142 miles of track, which runs through Plymouth, Chocowinity, Greenville and Wilson to just east of Raleigh. Virgil Holman, general manager of CCR, stood watching Bass and Black switching boxcars. "They have to really know each other and be able to work together to do this," Holman said. Bass, 32, of Wilson, maneuvered the 1,850 horsepower engine from one track to the next while Black, 42, of Wake Forest, made sure the boxcars were in order for the stops they would make on their way to Zebulon. "I've always liked trains," Bass said, adding he still has an electric train set at home. Black, formerly of Chicago, said he has always loved working outdoors, but the cold winters in the North didn't give him much time for that. It's rough coupling boxcars when the wind-chill is 30 degrees below zero, he said. "I've always liked railroading," Black said above the roaring sound of the diesel engine of the train as it rumbled down the track. Down the line By 9:15 a.m. the train pulled out of the rail yard, rolling slowly through Wilson. Black sat on a cooler in the engine cab talking on a cell phone with a worker from CSX Railway to make sure the track ahead was clear. After reaching Five Points and leaving a couple of boxcars on a side rail, Bass backed the train past White's Tires Warehouse to Stock Building Supplies. "Clear to the left. Clear to the right. Keep shoving. Clear on both sides," Black said into the radio, looking each way along Goldsboro Street as he maintained his position on the back of the train. When the train was backed to the gate of Stock Building Supplies, Black asked Bass for a shovel, which was passed through the engineer's window. He went to the rear of the train and dug some overgrown grass and weeds from the track. Then Bass backed the train in, and a flat car of lumber was left in the yard of the business. Leaving the yard and crossing Goldsboro Street between two buildings, Bass observed: "No one here respects a train." So he slowed down as much as he could. It wasn't far up the track before Bass saw the first motorist of the day going around the railroad crossing gates that had just come down on Park Avenue. By the time the train got to Forest Hills Road four cars had hurried around the crossing gates so they wouldn't have to wait on the train that only took 20 seconds to clear the intersection. The men just shook their heads. They have seen it happen many times before yet still can't believe people continue taking the risk. Back at the rail yard, Holman said it's a major problem when vehicles try to beat a train by running flashing railroad lights or swerving around crossing gates. "That is one of the things we have always tried to fight," he said. "But we have no control over it." During the more isolated runs of the train ride through Wilson County, with only trees and tobacco fields to look at, Black considers why he became a conductor on a short-line railroad. The money isn't as good as a Class 1 railroad job (the big national trains), but the hours are better and the crew of Carolina Coastal Railway is like a family, he said. "I heard that the railroad was getting healthier again in the mid-'90s," Black said. "... I like railroading, and I always have. With a short line, at the end of the day your work is done. Every day is different. But every night when you get home you know the work is done and you don't have to worry about it anymore." When he worked in another business, Black said he would watch the "in-box" on his desk pile up with papers and he would spend all winter whittling it down, which didn't give him a sense of completing a job. Although Bass said has always been fascinated by trains, after a while, running the same routes, it becomes like most jobs with the same frustrations and highlights. "But everybody -- my friends -- think it is the coolest thing," he said. Rolling into Sims the train passed the N.C. Chip Co. Box cars lined up on a spur beside the track that would be picked up the following day. Steve Scott, mill manager for N.C. Chip in Sims, a company that provides wood chips to companies that make pulpwood, said Carolina Coastal Railway was very important to his business because he relies on the railroad cars to haul the wood chips to the CSX line where they go on to Wilmington. "I really like them since they took over because they do a good job and work with me," Scott said. "They bend over backwards to do things for me. I think they do a lot better job than the main railroad did when they were working for me. They do an extra good job." After passing N.C. Chip Co. the train traveled through Bailey by Hanson Quarry, where this year it has picked up 100 boxcar loads of gravel for transport. Each of the boxcars can haul an average of four tractor trailer loads. In Middlesex, Kelly stopped the train just before reaching main street, and he and Black climbed down from the idling engine and walked to the Pitt Stop, a nearby convenience store, for hot dogs and sodas. After eating lunch in the engine it was a short ride to Hi-Cone, a plastics plant in Zebulon, where they dropped off the last box car before making the trip back to Wilson. Doug Golden, president and owner of Carolina Coastal Railway, said his four locomotives and 18 full-time workers have been providing service to about eight Wilson businesses. Another business might be interested in using the railway service in the near future, Golden said. The high diesel prices this year have been a concern of the railway, but Golden said it wouldn't not stop him from providing a service to Wilson. "Like everybody else we have to watch our nickels and dimes when it comes to fuel," he said. "In July the price doubled from what it was a year earlier. When we fill a locomotive it is a $5,000 bill. It hurts us. We obviously have to look at not running the train if we don't have to. But we have to balance that with the service. If someone needs the service we are going to provide it." Carolina Coastal Railway of Wilson is one of 21 short lines currently operating on about 930 miles of freight lines in North Carolina. eddie@wilsontimes.com | 265-7820 |
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