Railfanning in Aberdeen, NC - Aberdeen & Rockfish, CSX, Aberdeen, Carolina & Western, and Amtrak!

[@chickhenkein_FAK...]

Thanks alot for this information! I am currently in aberdeen NC and waited for several hours and saw no train!

[@d.burdett2232]

I was in the 82nd in the mid-Nineties. I lived at Woodstream Apartments in Fayetteville. The Aberdeen & Rockfish main line passed right behind my back deck. On the very rare day that I had off midweek, I would see that Geep pulling a string of 3 or 4 cars into Fayetteville. Good to see it still running. Thanks for sharing the video.

[@brettany_renee_blatchley]

**Thank You** what a lovely video!! ❤😊 I lived up near the Bethesda Church in the late '70s as a teen and my dad and I would frequently chase the A&R (and SCL & Amtrack). They would usually come up the hill in the mornings and return late in the day. Fun fact: back in '78/'79, I was a software consultant to A&R and wrote some of the early software they used in their headquarters. It was an IBM 5100 (before the IBM PC), and I was a high-school senior at the time; that was at the beginning of my four decade career in software engineering!

[@alexbogaski]

That's too cool! I go running up by the old Bethesda Church all the time. The area is growing, a new neighborhood with at least a hundred homes is going up just up the road from the church and railroad crossing.

[@drbbhiggins]

Great video

[@tehtrintran]

Thanks for this, it was really informative. I've lived in Aberdeen my entire life and have never managed to see A&R, not even once.

[@danniesheffield451]

I grew up in Southern Pines in the 50s and 60s and remember well The SAL and the Aberdeen and rock fish railroad. I remember the original Norfolk and Southern RY tracks which now are part of Aberdeen Carolina Western. I currently live in Raeford and we usually have a train come through on weekdays.

[@55tmilam]

Great video! Informative! And a wide range of motive power. My gosh! I still LOVE SD40-2s and hard working EMD prime movers!

[@sofreak6]

Thank you for this awesome video and for serving our country.

[@alexbogaski]

I appreciate that

[@17leeward]

Hi from the UK. Really enjoyed this. Thanks for uploading

[@alexbogaski]

Thanks for watching

[@garyherron298]

Great narration! It helped me a lot. Enjoyed it all, especially the A&R and AC&W switching. Thanks for posting...and getting out in the rain!!!

[@ThomasKlimoski]

Excellent video! Thanks for all the railfan information in Aberdeen, NC. I really enjoyed seeing the ACWR footage. The High Octane cafe looks like a great place to catch the local train action.-Tom

[@alexbogaski]

Thanks, Tom. And yes, that's our favorite coffee spot. They do live music and food trucks on weekends when the weather is nicer, too. So sometimes I even get to see trains on "date night." Haha.

[@ICE6365]

Excellent production. This is an awesome overview of the area. Thanks for sharing!

[@kevintaylor4597]

Thanks for sharing!

[@ibbylancaster8981]

I just moved from across the road from the A&R in Rockfish. They’re doing well decks in Raeford now. Been seeing these guys for many years. And you’re right, it is pretty cool to catch em. Great video

[@darnoldie]

That was a most interesting video. Excellent camera work and very well narrated. Never heard of this railroad before. Love their livery.

[@alexbogaski]

Thank you

[@carltongadgettmannprice352]

As a kid I can remember an EMD F unit coming by my granddad's property in Raeford, NC., headed across the road to a large plant. This was back in the early 60s and to my surprise, there is a picture of this exact train on the Aberdeen and Rockford RR website. I never knew the name of the RR until I saw the picture, date and location recently. The only picture that I ever had of this EMD F unit was in my mind, but now there is an actual picture. I'm so happy to see this picture.🙂

[@unity3596]

Yea A&R owned two F3s if i remember correctly 200 & 201. 200 was traded off to EMD for a GP7 201 went to RF&P

[@Justfor1day]

Great video...did not know about the CA&W...find both roads to have attractive paint schemes and interesting interchange with CSX...older power still to enjoy while we can.

[@joedelusso1415]

Alex didnt realize you were in NC, i lived in sanford NC for the past 5 years and followed the A&W as well as CSX through town.great video I just moved to cameron NC last month and also follow your farmrail videos on youtube.perhaps we can meet and I can show you around sanford and some of the A&W's customers someday.I'm on facebook look me up..

[@blueridgerails]

Very cool video, I love these classic family owned shortline operations!

[@jmerritt6835]

I was a kid in the Southern Pines-Aberdeen area in the 1970s. The Seaboard then was a real first-class piece of railroad.

[@jmerritt6835]

The old NS branch west of Aberdeen was pitiful. One train a week I think on a Saturday night. Crossing along US 1 wasn't signaled if I remember correctly, just crossbucks.

[@alexbogaski]

Thanks for sharing those memories. The old Seaboard is probably a lot quieter than you would remember it. However, the former NS is now an impressive piece of railroad. Sometimes the ACWR runs multiple trains a day. I've seen them get up to 35 mph in place, and they run those big ol 100 car unit trains from CSX. The crossing across US 1 is signaled now, though still no gates due to the width of the highway.

[@tomt9543]

@@alexbogaski If they ever write a history of the ACW, it should be titled “How Chickens Saved a Railroad”! As late as the early 90’s, the Star to Aberdeen line was ancient light rail spiked to sand! Big difference today with welded rail over a good portion of the line! Definitely a rags to riches story!

[@svetlanarudovsky1624]

✨ Beautiful Moving thank you so much for sharing this with me I lived right down there and that Aberdeen station across the street from it every day the little house was a little greenhouse and I would watch your trains go by till my house started shaking now I am up in the mountains and I do took my horn and the train guys know who I am I'm usually the girl in the white truck that lights up for them every time they're in town my headlights of my truck of course thank you for sharing this is so wonderful I didn't know the Amtrak train ran up here I was wondering where it went I'm retired I used to take that train in every day to work out in Dallas, but I am retired now and I just like watching the trains go by yes my grandfather was a train engineer he drove a train down to Texas and I think through your old line that they would have up in the mountains and run it down like you do yes they're dead now I was great great daughter yes, this is wonderful detail on their trains wonderful paint job on that yes and then the corn that's coming in for the chickens for the farmers thank you everybody needs to put a chicken in their pot and me able to cook it across country got it and you have to pay your house mortgage every day it's not free and I'm not married no and it's been wonderful living up here yes have a blessed day everyone I live here ✨👍✨🇺🇸🚂🚃🚃🦺🌹🌹♥️♥️💯✨💌✨✌️✨

[@rail.tennessee]

Fantastic video man! Gotta love the Aberdeen and Rockfish. Hoping to film them next time I’m out living in Raleigh in 2023.

[@alexbogaski]

Hit me up when you come down here!

[@gleanerk]

Very nice 👍🏻. Thanks for sharing,very much enjoyed. You must been transferred to Bragg . Also thanks for your service to our country.

[@alexbogaski]

Yep, serving at Bragg for the time being. Thank you!

[@carolinafoothillsrailroad4929]

Love both of those railroads Aberdeen Carolina and western and the rockfish need to take a road trip. Also I believe you moved

[@alexbogaski]

Thanks! Yep, we came to NC about 3 years ago, moved to Aberdeen 2 years ago.

[@vincentfontana7915]

Nicely done video

[@freighttrainsahpassing9790]

So Aberdeen and Rockfish only runs lite between Aberdeen and Raeford ? Does anything run south off of the Aberdeen & Rockfish Line and out of Raeford ?

[@alexbogaski]

They load shipping containers (of wood pellets, I think) in Raeford, and the occasional scrap load. And there's a business that gets plastic pellets right outside of town, as well as a fertilizer dealer.

[@floridarailfan]

Awesome

[@alexbogaski]

Thank you

[@alexmorales5326]

5:42 I think these trains are not scrapped and now are at AC&W headquarters at candor I’m not sure , But great video

[@TheKenHerrick]

Very Nice

[@alexbogaski]

Thanks

[@jimklug6214]

John, great videos. I live in Southern Pines and am a member of the Sandhills Central Railroad Club. Please stop by sometime and introduce yourself! We meet the first Wed. every month at 7pm at the Aberdeen Station for our business meeting. "Young Jim"

[@Georgiarailvideos6325]

does aberdeen & rockfish run daily?

[@unity3596]

How much sd40-2s ACWR have

[@alexbogaski]

I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I believe they have a roster of their power on their website.

[@bradfordthompson8326]

Do they store Cars on that track with no Customers???$

[@alexbogaski]

On the A&R? Surprisingly, no. There aren't many sidings, though, and they need to keep the main open to access their shops. Recently, the ACWR handed off an entire unit grain train to them to store, but they took it all the way to Fayetteville to store it.