TRAINS!!!: This Date in History

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My parents were in Prague that morning. They woke to the sounds of machine guns firing and tanks rumbling down streets. Dad was supposed to give a talk at an international conference.

The US Embassy was shut tight.

The British Embassy helped organize a train to take non-Czechs to border and beyond.
 
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#OTD in 1962 “Little Eva” Boyd of Belhaven hit #1 w/‘The Loco-Motion.’ In NYC seeking singing career, she met Carole King/Gerry Goffin-she sang on the Demo for ‘Loco-Motion’ for them-Producer Don Kirshner deemed the cut ready and released as is and it climbed quickly to the top spot. Modest success followed in the early ‘60s. She passed in 2003 in Kinston. Little Eva and “The Locomotion”

Listen Here: mm
 
"On August 26, 1747, Spanish privateers attacked and plundered Beaufort. The attack was the latest in a multi-year period of assaults by the Spanish on the largely undefended coast of North Carolina. It dramatically demonstrated the constant threat posed by the Spanish on the small British colony.

Small or not, after three days under siege, the colony’s inhabitants fought back and drove the privateers away. From records it is clear that some Spanish captives were taken in the skirmish. What was called “the alarm” was in effect until September when it became clear that the marauders would not be returning.

The next year, however, the Spanish attacked and temporarily drove away the inhabitants of Brunswick. As part of an inter-colonial war with the Spanish and French that had roots in Britain’s battles with the two countries, the skirmishes ended in 1748 with a treaty that was but a brief respite before the French and Indian War began in 1754."

 
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The train was so normal in #Bonlee that you gave it the same kind of place in your thoughts as you did the weather—it’ll be here—deal with it. The tracks ran right through ‘downtown’ and for me getting to church or school meant crossing over. Those tracks signified a lot of other things too - in my mind they ran to the south, to Sanford, a city - and to the north, to Siler City, not really a city, but where my Momma’s people came from. Beyond that I knew they went to Greensboro - which was where my Uncles Doc and Pete lived . That was a real city and where my Momma did some world class shopping and Deddy and I trekked for water pumps and other parts to stock #BonleeHardware.

I wandered some up those tracks though I wasn’t supposed to - northward there was a mysteriously dangerous trestle and right there in town we left pennies on the rail to be mashed flat and smooth by the locomotive. Ore Hill Mountain (the redundancy in what we called it never struck me as a child) was also north up the tracks. It was an alluringly forbidden place. Adults warned us of packs of wild dogs that lived there that would tear a child to shreds. I never saw one but I think that tale was to keep us off the hill because the story goes, this one a mainly true tale, that there were dangerous abandoned mine shafts there (hence the name Ore Hill) from a 19th century operation. Tale-telling is a habit in #DeepChatham.

The Southern Railway came through regularly but for some reason the time of the day run doesn’t stick in my mind. It must have varied. I was a kid too in those days and only certain hours on the clock had significance - school bells kicked off and signaled transitions but mostly you measured things by how long it took to walk or ride a distance on your bicycle. All those traverses were short and familiar enough to recognize a misplaced rock along the way. I do very well remember the musical, organ chord-like horn of the train as it announced its approach after dark though. In the late evening #Bonlee could be very still and our house was close enough that not only could you hear the horn but also feel that low, steady vibration for that minute or two that the train passed closest.

#Bonlee was supposed to be a railroad town. For twenty-two years, from 1910 until 1932, that was kind of the reality. The Dunlap brothers, the town’s most enterprising ‘developers’ helped get the place on the map, heading up school and church-building projects while simultaneously anchoring the local lumber business. They also created the Bonlee & Western Railway, an 11-mile line that ran East/West with terminuses in #Bonlee and #Bennett. So efficient was the operation, and thrifty were the brothers, that at the Bennett end of the line rather than spend their money on turn-around track, the B&W engine simply backed all the way home. The short line carried passengers, freight, and most of all, trees felled along the way, back to the sawmill. It was an ambitious project, creative, maybe a little outlandish - such ideas, dreams, and visions were the stuff of the countryside in the first half of the 20th century.

There is a Bonlee & Western tale that must be told. Once one of the Dunlap brothers attended a Railroad owners gathering in Atlanta and found himself in conversation with several other owners. The expected bragging ensued about miles of track laid and planned with the numbers tossed about being in the high hundreds. Dunlap was understandably quiet but eventually caught the attention of a boisterous rail baron who inquired about the B&W’s capacity. Dunlap replied that his railway was nowhere near as long as any of those being mentioned but that “it was every bit as wide!”
That’s as good a #Bonlee tale as there is though there are others. Clearly once The Train was deeply ingrained in the life of that little town in #DeepChatham. It was integral in mine too. Living these days as I do back and forth between NYC & #Asheville I’m still in a railroad world. We ride the trains in The City more than ever and their sound is part of daily life. There’s a railroad presence in #AVL as well but very sadly not a passenger one.

All Hail to the #Tweetsie in your life-Ride a train-but may your ride be better than the one that we remember from August 27, 1891. #OTD in 1891 at Bostian Bridge near Statesville one of the worst train wrecks in N.C. History occurred. Jumping the bridge tracks & crashing into Third Creek in the early morning 20 died & 9 injured. Of course there is a Tar Heel Ghost Story. https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../27/tragedy-at-bostian-bridge-1891.
 
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