Towns Along the Line · Milepost CF 110.7

Bonlee, NC

Chatham County

History

Bonlee is a small community in southwest Chatham County. Bonlee was established in 1894 and was first known as Dunlap’s Mill. In 1898 it was renamed Causey for Joshua Causey, a local resident. In 1910, the community was renamed Bonlee, supposedly for a brand of cloth! Bonlee incorporated in 1913, but repealed the charter in 1936.

For a small place, Bonlee was a junction. The Bonlee & Western Railway, a short line, connected with the A&Y here, and the 1916 ICC valuation logged the physical connecting track between the two. Bonlee’s own depot was a Type 3 combination station built to Southern Railway print No. 15/360, set on brick piers, with a high freight platform and a whitewashed stock chute; its chert passenger platform ran about 420 square yards.

Track Diagram

ICC valuation map of Bonlee track and depot layout — Track and station layout from ICC valuation blueprint v27-29. Click for full size.

An image from the ICC valuation maps gives a fair idea of how the track and depot were laid out.

Industries

A Southern Railway Shippers Guide from 1916 showed five industries at Bonlee using the A&Y for delivering and receiving products by rail.

Industry	Goods Shipped	Company Name
cotton gin	cotton	Dunlap, Waddell Co.
livestock	cattle, sheep	O. R. Glosson
planing mill	miscellaneous	W. A. Wood, Bennett, NC
sawmill	oak and pine	Jno. H. Dunlap & Sons
sawmill	oak and pine	W. C. Brewer (P.O. Bennet, NC)

Today there are feed mills and a tie plant served by Norfolk Southern on this former A&Y trackage.

Odds and Ends

If you know anything about this town or the businesses and industries that might have used the railroad for shipping or receiving products, please let me know. Below are some photos and information I have collected about Bonlee while Mr. Gareth McDonald was showing me around the line.

The tie plant at Bonlee was (is) the largest one supporting the Southern (Norfolk Southern) Railway. Unfortunately, the plant is vast and secluded. I was fortunate to get one shot of a MoW gondola being loaded in the plant. Mr. Gareth McDonald was showing me around when we saw the “usual” grain train idling near the tie plant. We watched for a few minutes, but Mr. McDonald said we could wait several hours before it moved. So we drove over to the tie plant and snapped a photo of a gondola. Mr. McDonald thought I would be interested in checking out the feed mill along the road somewhat north of the tie plant. So we drove up there and found a second grain train on the line. This one was not only unusual for occupying this relatively unbusy line along with another train, but the 3 locomotives powering this train were a strange mix at the time to find in North Carolina! See what I mean in the photos below.

NS MoW gondola 998253 being loaded at the Bonlee tie plant — NS MoW gondola being loaded at the Bonlee tie plant. Click for full size.

The NS MoW gondola being loaded at the tie plant in Bonlee.

Bonlee feed mill, storage building and silos — Bonlee feed mill, one of the storage buildings. Click for full size.

The feed mill is just north of the tie plant. Here’s one of the storage buildings. You can just see the storage silos to the right in this big mill.

Bonlee feed mill, silos, wider view — Feed mill, wider view showing more silos. Click for full size.

A shot panning a bit from the photo above showing more of the mill and its silos.

Bonlee feed mill, grain hoppers and storage bins. Click for full size.

Panning further, you can see the grain hoppers in front of more grain/feed storage bins.

Three-unit locomotive lashup at the Bonlee feed mill: HLCX 6504, EMD 9092, BN 7932 — Three-unit lashup at the Bonlee feed mill: HLCX 6504, EMD 9092, BN 7932. Click for full size.

That 3-unit set that seemed rather unique to NC! The HLCX 6504 is owned by a leasing company. The EMD 9092 is also a leased locomotive. BN 7932 is a Burlington Northern unit. Perhaps it’s extra power being leased by parent BNSF or maybe it’s run-through power. Who knows these days.

Grain trucks at the Bonlee feed mill loading dock. Click for full size.

The feed mill must distribute its product by truck as there is a large loading dock and there were quite a few of these trucks rumbling in and out.

Old structure at the Bonlee feed mill, possibly from the A&Y era — Old structure at the Bonlee feed mill complex. Click for full size.

This old building was probably the only structure in this set of photos that was likely to have been around in the A&Y days. I don’t know what this was, but it seemed like a good photo while I waited for that mongrel trio of locomotives to pass by for closeup shots while switching!