History with ‘Hud’: The nearly 200-year story of Wilmington’s railroads
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — This weekend marks 12 years since a Guinness World Record was set at the Wilmington Convention Center for the longest model railroad in the world.
Completed on April 23, 2011, the train consisted of 1,563 model train cars and 31 locomotives, measuring over 925 feet in length.
But the story of Wilmington’s place in railroad history goes back to the 1830s and a much bigger world record at the time.
The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad was chartered in 1834, to transport goods from the Port City to the Capital City. But backers in Raleigh didn’t support the idea, and the railroad was adjusted to run to Weldon near the Viriginia border instead (being renamed the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad in 1855).
Construction on the new track began in October of 1836, with completion coming four years later. When the line was finished in March of 1840, the 161.5 miles of track made it the longest railroad in the entire world.
The major railroad line was used heavily during the Civil War by the Confederacy for transporting troops and supplies to and from the single open confederate port of Wilmington. However, the Port City fell in February of 1865 and the railroad was badly damaged. This cutoff of supplies was a big contributing factor to Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse two months later.
In the years to follow, the destroyed portions of the rail line were fixed and the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad eventually merged with rail lines up and down the east coast decades later to form the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1900. The Atlantic Coast Line established its headquarters in Wilmington, employing thousands of people until its relocation to Jacksonville, Florida 60 years later in 1960.
The railroads running through Wilmington became the Seaboard Coast Line in the 1960s, switching to the CSX line in the 1980s, which it remains today.
The 1980s also gave rise to the Wilmington Railroad Museum, which was founded in 1979 by three women with a table of Atlantic Coast Line artifacts.
The collections grew through the late twentieth century, with the museum finding a permanent home on Nutt Street in 2007.
The Museum receives thousands of visitors each year and serves as a reminder of the historic role Wilmington has played in the railroad industry.
