Southern Railway, in mid-September, purchased all outstanding stock of the Atlantic and East Carolina Railway Company-a 96-mile rail line extending from a connection with the Southern at Goldsboro, N. C., to the Atlantic Ocean port at Morehead City, N. C.

The Atlantic and East Carolina Railway Company will continue to be operated as a separate short line railroad.

It was the climax of four years of study and negotiation by the railway and of extensive hearings over the past two years conducted by the Interstate Commerce Commission. ;

Southern's active interest in the A&EC goes back to 1953. At that time, 'intensive studies were made of the traffic and industrial potential of the A&EC and of territory it serves in Eastern North Carolina.

Encouraged by results of the studies, Southern applied to the I.C.C. in October, 1954, for authority to purchase the Atlantic and East Carolina Railway. Southern felt that this line would in time produce a greater volume of traffic and revenues, serve Eastern Carolina better and realize more fully their potential for industrial development, if it; acquired ownership.

Public sentiment in the area ran strongly in favor of the Southern's proposal. State and city officials, as well as businessmen in the immediate area, saw in it a realization of a century-old dream of giving Eastern North Carolina East-West rail service and opening up to greater development the port of More- head City.

Principal opposition in the I.C.C. hearings came from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and the Norfolk Southern Railway (the latter line had the A&EC under lease years ago and lost it during the 30's ) .

The A&EC was organized approximately 20 years ago, but the line of railroad it leased --and operated was owned by the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad Company, chartered in 1852 to build a railroad from Goldsboro to Beaufort Harbor, three miles across the inlet from Morehead City .

After the North Carolina counties involved approved the plan, stockholders organized the company in June, 1854, and early the next year considered bids for actual construction of the line between New Bern and Kinston.

By the first day of 1857 a train could go six miles above New Bern. In little more than a year afterward the railroad was completed between Goldsboro and New Bern. By June 7, 1858, trains were running all the way from Goldsboro to Morehead City, with steamer connections to Beaufort.

The A&NC fared much as did other southern roads during the War Between the States. In March, 1862, the line from New Bern to the Atlantic Coast fell to the Federal troops, who extended their control as far as Kinston by the end of the year. In March, 1865, the remainder of the road was captured and the whole was operated as a military road until returned to the company on October 24, 1865.

Slow development of the East Carolina territory and frequent political changes of management (every time a new governor took office in the state) hampered the road's development for a time. It was leased to the Midland North Carolina Railroad in 1882-83 and later efforts were made to lease the property to a larger railroad.

In September, 1904, the Howland Improvement Company leased the road for a 91-year period. Later it was consolidated with the Norfolk Southern, which operated the line under lease for a number of years.

"The Old Mullet Road" (so called because of the huge quantities of the fish shipped over it) for years played an important part in the development of East Carolina, and made progress in earnings and in the value of the property.

When the Norfolk Southern went into receivership, the lease was voided and the state-controlled A&NC began independent operation in 1935.

The "Mullet Line" found it heavy going in the rough business tides of the 1930's and in 1939 the property was leased to the A&EC which was organized and controlled by H. P. Edwards of Sanford, N. C., and his associates, E. R. Buchan and I. A. Bolich. It was from this group that Southern purchased the A&EC.

A&EC served well during the years of World War II and afterward, but the owners of the leasing company shared the opinion of those who felt that both the railroad and the territory it served would develop and prosper to a greater extent if the line were owned by the Southern Railway.