Founded in 1923, the High Point, Thomasville, and Denton Railroad was a 20-mile short-line railroad owned by the jointly CSX Transportation and (Norfolk Southern Railway owned) Winston-Salem Southbound Railway. The WSS filed a request April 13, 2010, to merge the High Point, Thomasville, and Denton Railroad into the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway. The Surface Transportation Board published notice of this transaction April 16, 2010, which became effective May 1, 2010. Norfolk Southern has a small yard in High Point at the beginning of the line.
But, what about this locomotive?
High Point, Thomasville, and Denton Railroad 70-ton 202 was built by General Electric in January 1948 and served the HPT&D for years. It was eventually sold to the Laurinburg & Southern (LRS 105), then it was resold at some point to the Franklyn County Railroad (FCYR 105). And from there, it ended up as part of the small railroad circling the Denton FarmPark in (where else?) Denton NC.
Denton FarmPark is a family-owned historical park with 15 restored buildings including a general store, grist mill, church, blacksmith shop and log cabin. The grounds are also encompassed by a 1½-mile loop of track on which they operate a steam train. (However, their locomotive, a former Navy 0-4-0T rebuilt into an 0-4-2 with a tender, has not been operable since 2019, although they hope to get it back into operating condition soon. And, sadly, they named it the Handy Dandy Railroad. Ugh.)
But, what about this locomotive? Denton FarmPark, which is located only 2 or so miles from the southern end of the the original HPT&D, also operates the beautifully restored HPT&D 202 on this trackage, resplendent in its original, colorful paint scheme. (Denton, North Carolina – October 18, 2008)
