For railfans, one a great benefits of the Norfolk Southern's well known "Thoroughbred Lease Program" is an interesting operation like the ACWR. The road has made this old segment of the orginial Norfolk Southern into a profitable shortline enterprise, and along the way the operators have formed quite a nice collection of second hand road power -- much of it rebuilt by class one shops, as in the case of the Seabord Coast line GP16s. My father and I enjoyed chasing a local movement from the CSX interchange in Aberdeen northwest to Star -- true piney woods shortlining at its best. Having grown up chasing ICG Paducah rebuilds, I appreciate the AC&W's collection of Seaboard Coast Line GP16 rebuilds a great deal. I hope to visit the AC&W again, mostly to see the GP40 wide cabs that arrived on the line since our last visit.

Thanks to Jim Wrinn's 2017 spread in TRAINS about the transformation of the Aberdeen, Carolina & Western from a small-time shortline to major hauler, I was looking forward to my return to the line, this time with chase pal Ben Wells. We started in Star, which has shifted from diesel shop to diesel storage since my last visit. There were ex Union Pacific MP15's and ex Canadian National SD60F's everywhere we looked. The black and white tiger stripes look so good on the side of the Canadian units, I suggested to Ben that all the ACWR needs to do to make those units their own is to change the CN red on the nose to some shade of cream or green, keeping the stripes. That would be one good looking cowl unit. From Star we moved down to Candor and found the road's amazing new shop facility. Crews were testing some units just outside on the main, with a FRA measurement car (ex Amtrak Amfleet) sandwiched in between. Wanting to be good citizens of the hobby, we inquired at the front door of the office about permission to take pictures of the building and the old Briar Patch unit now on display out front. Our greeter was nothing but kind, but was quick to indicate that she would not be letting us in the building to see the shop. I knew what she was going to next say: Apparently some previous railfans abused the privilege, climbing all over some locomotives and wearing out the welcome for the rest of us. (Be good out there, people. It is just a hobby. Let the railroaders know we are not all knuckleheads.) From Candor we made our way down the line to Aberdeen, making a number of stops along the way. At Aberdeen, we found a crew working the CSX interchange. It took them a fews hours to get their train put together, which gave Ben and me time to walk over to the Aberdeen & Rockfish offices and locomotive shed. Eventually, the ACWR crew (a woman and man, both incredibly friendly to us) was ready to pull through the tight wye in Aberdeen and make their drag up the hill toward Pinehurst. We shot them in town, then gave chase. However, at the top of the hill above town, the train went into emergency, blocking a whole series of crossings. Pulled knuckle 6 cars back from the power. Eventually, they found and installed a replacement, and we were back underway ... chasing them through the sandhills and pines all the way back to Candor. (See photos on my Action page.) Wrinn has it right: The modern ACWR is quite a hauler: mainline power shoving mainline trains. We had such a good time seeing them in action. Well done, Mr. Menzies.