A&Y — Atlantic & Yadkin Railway
History & Modeling  ·  1899–1950
North Carolina  ·  1899–1950

Atlantic & Yadkin Railway

A history of the short line that ran from Mount Airy to Sanford through the Carolina Piedmont — and how some of us have tried to recreate it in scale.

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History
Origins, ownership, operations, and the end of the line
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Towns
Every station from Mt. Airy to Sanford
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Equipment
Locomotives, freight cars, and maintenance of way
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Track
1912 chart of the CF main line and branches
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Operations
Timetables, rule books, and how the railroad ran
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Modeling
Recreating the A&Y in HO scale

Recent Updates

The A&Y email list on groups.io covers related regional railroad history beyond the scope of this site, including Winston-Salem Division history and material from Conductor H.F. Snow's records. Join if you're interested.

I am always working on my collection of A&Y and related railroad photographs — locomotives, the one surviving caboose, extant stations, and the towns and industries served by the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley, the Mount Airy & Eastern, the A&Y, and the modern Yadkin Valley and Norfolk Southern. Some are postcard images, some are scanned from out-of-print books or donated by researchers, and some are contemporary images from my trips to the region beginning in September 1999.

Some historic photos are from the North Carolina State Library Photographic Archives and are considered public domain. Others come from personal collections or the UNC Southern Collection and carry copyright restrictions. Please do not copy images without contacting me first.

If you have photographs of the A&Y or related subjects you are willing to share or sell, please contact me: dbott@vt.edu or David Bott, 2200 Carroll Highlands Court, Sykesville, MD 21784-6306.