Article #88: Atlantic Coast Line 4-6-0 #1031 North Carolina Transportation Museum (May 17, 2025)

 

In this new article we will get a closer look at Atlantic Coast Line 4-6-0 #1031 at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC.

This locomotive was built in 1913 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for service on the Atlantic Coast Line.  It was one of twenty-five 4-6-0 locomotives ordered. At one time, it was nicknamed the Copperhead. It had that nickname because of the bright copper rings on its smokestack.

The Atlantic Coast Line used these locomotives in both passenger and freight service in towns like Wilmington, Rocky Mount and Fayetteville in North Carolina. They also ran in many other places along the eastern seaboard like Jacksonville, FL and Richmond, VA.

The locomotives were transferred to small subsidiary lines related to the ACL once diesel locomotives took over. An example of that would be that #1031 operated on the East Carolina Railway in the area of Tarboro, NC in the mid 1950's. It also ran on the Virginia Carolina Southern in Lumberton, NC later in the 1950's.

In 1959, #1031 was put on display in Florence, South Carolina near the rail yard and behind the passenger station. 

In 1994, the locomotive was donated to the North Carolina Transportation Museum by the city of Florence. Once it got to Spencer, the locomotive was cosmetically restored in 1996 where it went back to its appearance from the 1940's.