the Franklin and Carolina Railroad connected the paper mill in Franklin to the Norfolk & Carolina Railroad, providing access to Hamton Roads ports
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
the Franklin and Carolina Railroad connected the paper mill in Franklin to the Norfolk & Carolina Railroad, providing access to Hamton Roads ports
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
The Camp Manufacturing Company got authorization in 1944, during World War II, to build a railroad connecting its paper mill and saw mill in Franklin with the Atlantic Coast Line at what became "Franklin Junction." The Atlantic Coast Line route had been part of the original Norfolk Southern Railroad, which was a totally different company than today's Class I railroad.
The Camp Manufacturing Company had previously built the Roanoke Railway, 75 miles west of the Dismal Swamp. That railroad operated between 1912-26, and was abandoned when the timber had been cut.2
"North Carolina Railroads - Roanoke Railway," Carolana, http://www.carolana.com/NC/Transportation/railroads/nc_rrs_roanoke_railway.html; "Abandonment of Roanoke Ry," Interstate Commerce Commission, Finance Docket 5143, December 29, 1945, Interstate Commerce Commission Reports, Government Printing Office, 1926, p.267, https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/Chcm3vvaAO4C (last checked June 29, 2020)
The Franklin and Carolina Railroad substituted for the loss of the railroad connection to Suffolk. The original Norfolk Southern Railroad (not today's Class I railroad called the Norfolk Southern) had abandoned its line between Suffolk and Franklin, the route originally developed by the Suffolk & Carolina Railway, in 1940. The Camp Manufacturing Company lost access for shipping timber from the Dismal Swamp to its mills in Franklin, via Suffolk.
First the lumber company created a rough dirt road to provide direct transport from the areas being logged in the swamp to the mills in Franklin. That road was replaced by the new Franklin and Carolina Railroad.
The primary reason for creating the new railroad was one-way traffic, hauling lofs from east to west. The mill in Franklin was served already by the Atlantic and Danville Railway and by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad; they could ship finished wood products to market. The Franklin and Carolina Railroad was needed to transport logs from North Carolina for processing in Franklin, Virginia. Though most traffic was related to operations at the mill, Camp Manufacturing Company got the railroad designated as an interstate carrier by the Interstate Commerce Commission. That allowed creating a tariff to haul freight for whatever customers wanted to pay for that service, and to facilitate the interchange of cars with the Atlantic Coast Line.2
Clifford A. Hedgepeth, Jr., "Dismal Swamp Operations of Camp Manufacturing Company and The Franklin and Carolina Railroad," Southampton County Historical Society, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~vaschs/Camp.htm (last checked April 22, 2020)
The Franklin and Carolina Railroad intercepted the Atlantic Coast Line, which was using the route of the original Norfolk & Carolina Railroad, at Franklin Junction. Track was built east of the junction into the swamp at Railroad Ditch, now the site of the headquarters for the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and the start of the Lake Drummond Wildlife Drive.
the Franklin and Carolina Railroad enabled the Camp Manufacturing Company to ship to Suffolk via the Atlantic Coast Line
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Norfolk VA 1,250,000 topographic quadrangle (1953)
The Camp Manufacturing Company began heavy timbering in that area in 1934. Camp 7, base for the men cutting the trees, was moved to a site near Cypress Chapel in 1938. Narrow-guage tracks were extended into the swamp, with construction costs minimized in places by spiking rails to logs laid on top of the peat rather than placing crossties in a stone ballast. The tracks were not expected to remain in place long. Once the area near the track had been cut over, the rails east of Franklin Junction were removed and Railroad Ditch became a road.2
Bland Simpson, The Great Dismal: A Carolinian's Swamp Memoir, Henry Holt and Company, 1990, pp.51-54, https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/A7TvfL79wBAC (last checked April 22, 2020)
the Franklin and Carolina Railroad track into the Dismal Swamp along Railroad Ditch was not meant to last long
Source: Rail Relics Today, Railroad Keys E-F
The Atlantic Coast Line purchased the 18-mile long Franklin and Carolina Railroad in 1958. What was by then called Union Camp Corporation was a paper manufacturing company, with only one engineer licensed to drive the locomotive hauling interstate freight.1
"North Carolina Railroads - Franklin & Carolina Railroad," Carolana, https://www.carolana.com/NC/Transportation/railroads/nc_rrs_franklin_carolina.html; Clifford A. Hedgepeth, Jr., "Dismal Swamp Operations of Camp Manufacturing Company and The Franklin and Carolina Railroad," Southampton County Historical Society, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~vaschs/Camp.htm; Norfolk and Western Railway Copany vs. Commonwealth of Virginia, Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, Record No. 6441, June 15, 1966, pp.59-60, https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=0&article=1011&context=va-supreme-court-records-vol208&type=additional (last checked April 22, 2020)
The Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroad merged to create the Seaboard Coast Line in 1967, reducing the competition between railroads. After the merger, the Seaboard Coast Line had no reason for maintain two sets of track to the mill. The former Seaboard Air Line track was retained, and the Franklin and Carolina Railroad track to Franklin Junction was removed in 1972.1
"Dismal Swamp Operations of Camp Manufacturing Company and The Franklin and Carolina Railroad," Southampton County Historical Society, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~vaschs/Camp.htm; "Looking back: Rites held for Camp," The Tidewater News, October 4, 2013, https://www.tidewaternews.com/2013/10/04/looking-back-rites-held-for-camp/; ; Clifford A. Hedgepeth, Jr., "Dismal Swamp Operations of Camp Manufacturing Company and The Franklin and Carolina Railroad," Southampton County Historical Society, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~vaschs/Camp.htm (last checked April 22, 2020)
the Seaboard Coast Line abandoned the Franklin and Carolina Railroad track
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Norfolk, VA 1:100,000 topographic quadrangle (1953, reprinted 1973)
"Franklin Junction," where the Franklin and Carolina Railroad met the Atlantic Coast Line, was not a unique name. Since 1879 there had been a Franklin Junction in Franklin County. There the Franklin and Pittsylvania Railroad met the Lynchburg and Danville Railroad, at a town that today is called Gretna.2 "Franklin Junction Historic Rairoad Park," Virginia Tourism Corporation, https://www.virginia.org/listings/HistoricSites/FranklinJunctionHistoricRailroadPark/ (last checked April 22, 2020)
Franklin Junction included "wye" tracks for trains to reverse direction
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Suffolk, VA 1:62,500 topographic quadrangle (1954)
the roadbeds at Franklin Junction are still evident today
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online