Greensboro (Milepost CF 70.0)
History
Greensboro is a large city. For history and other information on it, I suggest the Greensboro History web page.
The Atlantic & Yadkin Railway was the only railroad (to date) to be headquartered in Greensboro. The Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley at one time had a relatively big yard with turntable and shop, a lot of local industry to switch, and a junction with the Southern providing a lot of interchange. After the A&Y was formed and taken over by the Southern, much of the CF&YV roundhouse, turntable and shops was no longer used and the A&Y shared the Southern's roundhouse and coaling facilities. This led to some interesting controversies when the A&Y began operating independently, especially under receivership. Greensboro is where the Southern delivered all the leased cars, cabs and locomotives that comprised the A&Y roster. The A&Y had no need to maintain it's locomotives elsewhere as most trains on the A&Y originated and terminated in Greensboro - a city centrally located on the line. Coaling stations and water tanks could be found along the line, and turntables and/or wyes were used at the terminal cities, but Greensboro facilities were the main hub of maintenance for the A&Y.
The A&Y obtained most of its revenue (according to it's annual reports) by switching industries in Greensboro, including the Furnace Branch (named for the pig iron furnace that was once located in the city on this line. This city and the A&Y trackage could be the focus on an entire web site. More info to come.
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Here is a colorized photo postcard of the Southern station in Greensboro circa 1908. I'm not sure what the A&Y did for passenger service in Greensboro. They did not have a separate station (although the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley did before the Southern Railway split it with the ACL). |
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This colorized photo postcard depicts the Southern Railway station in 1930. Little appears to have changed in two decades. |
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This photo postcard circa 1941 shows the new station. |
Track Diagram
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This diagram is only the overview of the A&Y - Southern junction and tracks from the ICC Valuation blueprints. More detailed maps are available, but I have not had a chance to clean them and stitch them together. |
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This diagram includes the depot. |
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This diagram does not give much detail, but it shows the relative geometry of the A&Y's furnace branch in Greensboro relative to the Southern's mainline.
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This diagram shows the Southern Power Plant in Greensboro. |
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This diagram covers the entrance to Proximity Mills, a textile mill. |
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Here is a view of the yard tracks from a Southern Railway document showing where the A&Y tracks were to be removed. Document is from the collection of Marvin Black (R.I.P.).
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Industries
A Southern Railway Shippers Guide from 1916 indicates the following industries in addition to LCL shipments, passengers, and mail were located in Greensboro and used either the A&Y or the Southern for delivering and receiving products by rail (although some may have used the station or team track rather than having a dedicated siding). I will add other industries as I receive information about them:
| Industry | Goods Shipped/Rec'd |
Company Name |
| agricultural manufacturer | threshing machines | J. I. Case Threshing Machine Co. |
| brick factory | bricks | Cunningham Brick Co. |
| chemicals | rendering byproducts | Carolina By-products |
| cigar factory | cigars | W. F. Clegg |
| cigar factory | cigars | Guilford Cigar Co. |
| cigar factory | cigars | T. A. Lyon |
| cigar factory | cigars | O. El Rees Cigar Co. |
| cigar factory | cigars | E. J. & A. G. Stafford |
| cotton mill | Indigo Blue Denims | Proximity Manufacturing Co. |
| cotton mill | Indigo Printed Drills and Denims | Proximity Print Works |
| cotton mill | Indigo Blue Denims | White Oak Cotton Mills |
| cotton mill | Cotton and Canton Flannels | Revolution Cotton Mills |
| cotton mill | Grey Cloths | Pomona Mills, Inc. |
| fertilizer factory | fertilizer | Armour Fertilizer Mfg. Co. |
| flour and grist mill | roller mill | W. A. Watson & Co. (Greensboro Roller Mills) |
| furniture factory | furniture | Patterson-Kiser Seat Co. |
| furniture factory | furniture | Standard Table Co. |
| furniture factory | furniture | Sterling Furniture Co. |
| manufacturing | terra cotta pipe | Pomona Pipe Products |
| marble tile factory | marble and tile | McClamrock Marble & Tile Co. |
| mattress, pillow, bedding factory | matresses | Caveness Mattress Co. |
| mills | flour | Wafco complex |
| ornamental metal works | miscellaneous | J. D. Wilkins |
| planing mill | miscellaneous | Cape Fear Mfg. Co. |
| shingle mill | shingles | Cape Fear Mfg. Co. |
| steel | steel | Carolina Steel |
| steel | steel fabricated parts | Carolina Steel |
| woodworking factory | miscellaneous | South Atlantic Lumber Co. |
| woodworking factory | miscellaneous | H. J. Thurman Lumber Co. |
| woodworking factory | miscellaneous | Guilford Lumber & Mfg. Co. |
| distribution | merchandise | Sears distribution center on Lawndale Ave |
| feed & seed | fertilizer | Agrico |
| feed & seed | fertilizer | USS Agrichem |
| manufacturing | concrete | |
| textiles | cotton | Cone Mills |
| textiles | clothing | Cone Mills |
Odds and Ends
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Here is the Greensboro station in the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley days. Photographer unknown, image provided by Jim McGhee.
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Proximity Mills was a textile factory owned by the Proxmity Manufacturing Company run by the Cone family. This colorized photo postcard was circa 1907-1915. |
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This is a photo postcard image of the White Oak cotton mills
and company homes. White Oak was owned by the Proximity Manufacturing
Company also. A lot of early large industries tried to keep workers
sufficiently satisfied so that they would not attempt to unionize. In many
cases, that included homes, schools, play grounds, garden plots, and other
amenities.
The mill village was laid out and constructed by the company around 1920 to serve the White Oak textile mill, a half-mile to the east. It was organized around a small isolated grid of streets which do not continue past 11th Street and 12th Street at the south, 14th Street and 16th Street at the north, North Church Street at the west, and the former Southern Railway tracks at the east. These amenities worked in many cases, keeping the workers happy. Being company supplied though, if profits were down these amenities could disappear or funding for them could be significantly reduced. Learn more about the White Oak New Town Historic District here. Here's another page on the Cone Mill Village. |
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While not terrifically helpful to modelers, here is an aerial overview of the city circa 1890. You can see the CF&YV (nee A&Y) track crossing the Southern. The CF&YV start at the middle left of the image where they would continue to the left and up (railroad west) heading to Mt. Airy. From the middle left, the track comes down and to the right where it goes under the Southern mainline (angling from top right corner to just above the R in Greensboro) and curves a bit before heading off the lower right hand side (railroad east) towards Pleasant Garden and on to Sanford. |
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Here is a shot of the Greensboro underpass of the Southern Railway. The track in the foreground was the Southern's heading up and away towards it's mainline which is on that overpass running from right to left. The A&Y mainline is the second track heading under the Southern's line and away north to Mount Airy. |
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Here is the junction looking south down the A&Y in the direction towards Sanford. |