The New Hope Valley Railway is a heritage railroad in Bonsal, North Carolina operated by the North Carolina Railway Museum, Inc., an all-volunteer, nonprofit, and tax exempt educational and historical organization.
The railroad consists of 6 miles of track between the communities of Bonsal, North Carolina and New Hill, North Carolina.
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The railroad operates passenger excursion trains on the first Sunday of each month from May to November and both Saturday and Sunday during the first two weekends in December. Special trains are operated for Halloween on the evening of the last Saturday in October, and with other themes throughout the year.
The railroad is operated by an all-volunteer crew, and it is a member of the Association of Railway Museums and the East Carolina Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS).
The North Carolina Railway Museum also displays a collection of historic railroad equipment used in North Carolina at the railroad's Bonsal terminal. This is a primarily outdoor exhibit, and is open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekends only throughout the year.
The railroad line operated as the New Hope Valley Railway was originally constructed as the Durham & South Carolina Railroad (D&SC) in 1905-1906 to tap the timber resources of the valley of New Hope Creek, and served the communities of Bonsal, North Carolina where it had a junction with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (now part of CSX), Beaver Creek, North Carolina, Seaforth, North Carolina, Farrington, North Carolina, Blands, North Carolina, Penny, North Carolina, and Durham, North Carolina.
The line was extended south between 1911 and 1913 from Bonsal, North Carolina to Duncan, North Carolina where it joined the Norfolk Southern Railroad. The D&SC line was lased by the Norfolk Southern Railroad in 1917 to provide the larger railroad with access to the City of Durham, North Carolina. In 1925 a spur was built at Durham, North Carolina to serve the new plant of the American Tobacco Company in that city. The line was rebuilt on a new alignment in the 1970s by the US Army Corps of Engineers when the B. Everett Jordan Dam was constructed, impounding the valley of New Hope Creek to form Jordan Lake. The line eventually became (briefly) part of the Southern Railway, and a 6-mile section was sold to the East Carolina Chapter, NRHS in 1983. This organization was subsequently re-named as the North Carolina Railway Museum, Inc. early in 2008.
The northern portion of the original railroad, from the community of New Hill, North Carolina north to Durham, North Carolina has been converted into the American Tobacco Trail. To the south, the railroad is part of the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant and its surrounding land.[1]