Aug 11: The Cradle of The Civil War 2

ПутешественникSaid to be ‘one of the only Queen Anne Victorian train stations in North Carolina (yes, really! ‘Queen Anne Victorian’, believe it or not, is a recognised architectural style), I’d say it’d have to be one of a very few in the whole USA. Hamlet, NC, was the division headquarters for the Seaboard Airline Railroad (name changed to Seaboard Coast Line after a merger with rival Atlantic Coast Line in 1967) at the crossing of two tracks. With multiple lines radiating out from the city, the town was a key location on the SAL's network. Around 30 passenger trains a day are stated to have passed through the town, a status that earned it the nickname "Hub of the Seaboard". Today, the former SAL/SCL routes through Hamlet are operated by CSX Transportation (which is quite another railroad merger story!). The depot was restored to its original form in 2004, The Seaboard routes that intersected at Hamlet included: The Main Line: A route that stretched from Richmond, VA, to Tampa, FL, running through Raleigh, NC, Columbia, SC, Savannah, GA, and Jacksonville, FL. A line to Atlanta, GA, and Birmingham, AL: Connecting with the main line at Hamlet, this line provided access to these key Southern cities. A line from Norlina, NC, to Portsmouth, VA: This was the earliest route of what became the Seaboard and connected Hamlet to the Virginia port city. A line to Wilmington, NC: The Wilmington Subdivision extended from Hamlet to the port at Wilmington. A line to Charleston, SC: This route diverged from the main line at Hamlet, providing an alternate path to Charleston.

ПутешественникThese intersecting lines made Hamlet a pivotal location for the Seaboard Air Line, facilitating the movement of both passengers and freight across the Southeastern United States. Six sets of tracks still crisscross in front of the station (these are referred to as ‘diamond crossings’), and a 2020 article in Trains magazine states that the depot is one of the most photographed train stations in the eastern United States. Not hard to understand. The ’air line’ (note, not ‘airline’) moniker refers to a line drawn straight through the air from one point on a map to another; ‘as the crow flies’, in other words. It originated as a marketing department ploy to differentiate the railroad’s long stretches of tangent track--especially across the Carolina ‘low country’--from the curves and grades of rival railroads. Because of the straight track, the SAL RR claimed that both passengers and freight had a smoother, safer, ride 😄

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