Aberdeen Carolina & Western's E9A Debut

The sounds of a vintage train horn echoed throughout the North Carolina Sandhills on May 25, 2023, as Aberdeen Carolina & Western debuted their Electro-Motive Division E9A locomotive onto their shortline railroad.

The locomotive ran from their company shops in Candor, N.C. and ran through the towns of Biscoe, Star, Troy, Mt. Gilead, Norwood, Oakboro and later ended the day between Stanfield and Midland, N.C. During its maiden journey for the company, the locomotive stopped on a bridge over the Pee Dee River in front of the Duke Energy hydroelectric dam.

The E9A locomotive was originally built by General Electric's Electro-Motive Division (EMD) at their manufacturing facility in La Grange, Ill. in 1955. It first operated for the Union Pacific Railroad and later was owned by Amtrak, the Alaska Railroad, Wisconsin & Southern and most recently Iowa Pacific.

Train enthusiasts, sometimes known as "railfans" descended on ACWR's Candor shops on the morning of May 25 to witness the rollout of the E9A locomotive, designated as ACWR 103.

Numerous railfans then moved on to capture the train passing by Candor's abandoned Norfolk Southern (1881-1974) and then Southern Railroad depot.

As these units are getting fewer and fewer in number, it has led to challenges for the railroad.

"EMD doesn't support these units anymore. So trying to obtain blueprints or wiring schematics, components for these, they're almost non existent. Any of these cab-units are becoming harder and harder to find any kind of parts," said Dale Parks, the Vice President of Mechanical at the Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway Company.

As the train neared the town of Biscoe, N.C., Jack Norton and his wife captured the vintage train consist from their 1950's-era MG TD.

As the train rolled through Star, N.C., ACWR 103 belched out a large white and blue cloud of smoke. An old Southern Railway whistle sign can also be seen.

According to Dale Parks, the railroad was pleased with the performance of the locomotive on its first post-restoration run.

"It surprised me how well the locomotive ran for its first debut out. Normally we would take them and kind of do a push-pull test or we would run some prior trips with it to make sure we get all the bugs out of it," said Parks. "This came right out of the shop, right out of paint and was put in service and had minimal issues with it, And we were amazed at how well it pulled it did an excellent job pulling the train."

In Star, the train changed tracks, which allowed it to head west towards the Pee Dee River and Charlotte. Numerous railfans lined the side of the tracks near this location to capture the train as it rolled under Star's Main Street bridge.

Trailing behind the E9A unit (ACWR 103) were two EMD F-units, including a cab unit. Both of these F-units were formerly owned by Norfolk Southern and were painted in a Southern Railroad-inspired paint scheme for their executive train. These units were later bought by ACWR in 2019.

The former Norfolk Southern F-units were acquired by Norfolk Southern in 2006 and were rebuilt by NS's Juniata shops in Altoona, Pa. to GP38-2 standards.

"We got two of the glamour girls from Norfolk Southern...the 271 and the 276," said Parks.

The other two F-units used by NS were sold to Pennsylvania-based Reading & Northern railroad.

ACWR 103 crosses over North Carolina Highway 27 near Uwharrie National Forest.

ACWR 103 crosses over the Pee Dee River next to the Duke Energy hydroelectric dam.

Numerous railfans chased ACWR's excursion train all the way to Stanfield, N.C. on May 25. Over the following weekend, the train was rolled from the Stanfield-Midland area to Charlotte's NoDa neighborhood where it was tied down for an event. It later returned back to Candor during the early morning on May 28.