Rural Hall, NC

History

Rural Hall is a community in north Forsyth County. The earliest settler apparently was Ludwig Bitting, former Hessian soldier in General Nathanael Greene’s army who liked the area when passing through and returned after the Revolution to settle. His descendants still live in the county. Rural Hall developed after the CF&YV erected a station here in 1887. You can read more history at the Town of Rural Hall’s web page. Rural Hall is at an altitude of 1,002 feet.

In 1943, the town was a water stop and had a phone and day train order office for the A&Y. The yard and local tracks had a capacity of 61 cars. Train 61 would come to call at 11:10AM daily except Sunday. Train 60 eastbound would pull in around 10:30 AM. It had furniture and lumber industries. It was also a junction with the Southern Railway’s branch to North Wilkesboro and Winston-Salem.

Rural Hall’s standing as a junction showed in its buildings. Where the small stations up the line were standard Type 3 depots, the 1916 ICC valuation survey recorded Rural Hall as a larger Type 4 combination station, 23 by 78 feet. Its freight-room floor sat 33 inches above the passenger end, set to meet a car floor. Off the agent’s office was a separate register room, fitting for a stop that served as a train-order office. The depot stood on brick piers, wore a metal-shingle roof, and fronted an unusually large chert platform — some 940 square yards, against 200 to 440 at the Type 3 stations — lit by two Dietz “Pioneer” oil lamps. The section forces made do with less: their maintenance-of-way storehouse was simply the body of a retired boxcar, lined inside with tongue-and-groove and set on blocking beside the track.

Track Diagram

Industries

A Southern Railway Shippers Guide from 1916 did not list any industries that were located in Rural Hall and using the A&Y for delivering and receiving products by rail. I will add other industries as I receive information about them:

Odds and Ends

An aerial photo of Rural Hall from 1958 (obtained from the North Carolina State Library Photographic Archives). Click on the image to see the full size view.

There is a lot to see in this photo: the station; an RS unit switching on the former A&Y (now Southern) tracks (up towards Mount Airy and down and right towards Greensboro); a cut of cars with a hopper, two pulpwood racks and some boxcars on the tracks heading towards Winston-Salem and Wilkesboro (lefthand side heading down and up respectively); the Philco Appliance warehouse below the station; what looks like a Southern States building (the photo as opposed to the e-image shows the SS on the building side); and numerous other interesting buildings/industries. I only hope I can find similar photos of the other towns on the A&Y.

Rural Hall now is the operational center of the Yadkin Valley Railway and many of the YV locomotives can be found idling there when not working. I caught a glimpse of them from the road at night my first visit. On my return in September I caught what must be most or all of the then current roster idling on a Sunday morning. I may add a YV section to this website. If you have pre-1960 photos, I would be very much interested in obtaining a copy for research or for display on this website.

Below I include only shots of the original station, its brick replacement, and some shots of the yard.

The old station at Rural Hall in the 50’s.

The old station in 1999 after it had been moved a hundred yards or so from its original site. It is now used as the headquarters of a construction company and a local newspaper.

Here is a shot of the new brick station, which now serves the Yadkin Valley Railway.

Here are two shots of the yard at Rural Hall.

Facing north towards Mount Airy, 29.9 miles away (note the milepost).

Facing south towards Greensboro.