Wilmington, Brunswick, and Southern Railroad [1]
Wilmington, Brunswick, and Southern Railroad
The Wilmington, Brunswick, and Southern Railroad (WB&S), originally known as the Town Creek Railroad and Lumber Company, was chartered in 1907 by local interests to provide freight and passenger service between a connection with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad [4] and the Seaboard Air Line Railway [5] at Navassa, west of the Cape Fear River [6] bridge, the heart of Brunswick County [7], and Southport. A 30-mile line was completed in November 1911 by a rather indirect route through Town Creek and Bolivia. According to local legend, the abbreviation WB&S inspired the nickname "Willing, But Slow" when a small locomotive, despite valiant puffing, was unable to start a trainload of World War I [8] soldiers on holiday until many of them got off and gave the train a push. Unlike other Wilmington railroads, the WB&S remained an independent operation throughout its history. Service was discontinued in 1941 and the road abandoned in 1943.
[9]
Reference:
Charles Kernan, Rails to Weeds: Searching Out the Ghost Railroads around Wilmington (1988).
Additional Resources:
"Complete Road Into South Port." The Spartanburg Herald. July 23, 1911. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dk8sAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0ckEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3610%2C1081094 [10] (accessed August 2, 2012).
Nunn, Scott. "Locals share memories of rail line between Wilmington, Southport." StarNewsOnline.com July 24, 2012. http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120724/ARTICLES/120729833 [11] (accessed August 2, 2012).
Coleman, Alan. Railroads of North Carolina. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing. 2008. http://books.google.com/books?id=z6WrRrfdUoEC&lpg=PA112&ots=5wYP3d_4Ky&dq=%22Wilmington%2C%20Brunswick%2C%20and%20Southern%20Railroad%22&pg=PA112#v=onepage&q=%22Wilmington,%20Brunswick,%20and%20Southern%20Railroad%22&f=false [12] (accessed August 2, 2012).
Image Credits:
"Wilmington, Brunswick, & Southern Railroad--Train leaving Station, Southport, N.C." in Durwood Barbour Collection [13] of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/nc_post/id/4177 [9]
1 January 2006 | Kennedy, George A.
