Bonsal, North Carolina

Bonsal is an unincorporated community in the New Hill, North Carolina postal district, part of the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) of Apex, North Carolina, in extreme southwestern Wake County, North Carolina. Bonsal was a railroad junction between the Durham & South Carolina Railroad (D&SC) (originally chartered as the New Hope Valley Railroad) and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (originally the Raleigh & Augusta Air Line Railroad). The New Hope Valley Railroad route was abandoned in the late 1970s.

The original name of the community was Godsey after the Godsey Farm in the area, but this was changed to Bonsal in 1907 when the community was briefly incorporated (1907 to 1917).

Bonsal is the site of the North Carolina Railroad Museum and the operating New Hope Valley Railway (NHVRy) tourist line. The line owns approximately 6 miles of track between Bonsal and New Hill, North Carolina, operating for passengers on the first Sunday of each month from May to November and both Saturday and Sunday the first two weekends in December. Other special event trains are operated at other times throughout the year.

The now abandoned railroad route north of New Hill, North Carolina has been converted into the American Tobacco Trail.

External links

[http://www.nhvry.org/ New Hope Valley Railroad & NC Railroad Museum]

[http://www.norfolksouthernhs.org/equipment.html Norfolk & Southern Railway Company Historical Society]

[http://www.triangletrails.org/ATT.HTM The American Tobacco Trail]

[http://railga.com/sal.html Seaboard Air Line Railroad]