Wilmington Railroad Museum
Hours of Operation
Closed Sunday
April 23 through May 22, 2014
Sunday: 1:00 - 4:00 PM
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Special Notice - Many local businesses are supporting the great work of the Museum as it enters a new era of service. Click on "a business" below to see who is helping!
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HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF WILMINGTON RAILROADING
The ACL in Wilmington
A Grand View of the Passenger Terminal, Roundhouse, and the River Terminal. Note the roundhouse in the foreground, warehouses and wharves along the river, and many railroad buildings. View is toward the southwest, showing the north end of Front Street.
ACL Passenger Terminal & Freight Yards. The old headquarters building (with steeple) in center of photo, with "new" building (1913) just above. View is toward the northeast.
Roundhouse Adjacent to the Passenger Platforms. For about 40 years this facility housed basic maintenance and repairs for locomotives, supplemented by nearby shops for car repairs, painting, smithing and machining, and carpentry. A turntable allowed engines to rotate to enter any repair bay from the main access line. Soon after this photo from about 1950, this building was demolished, and functions were consolidated at other ACL yards. View to the north.
An Early Diesel is About to Leave Wilmington with Mail & Passengers. Passenger concourse with arched openings (background) connects to Front Street and downtown activities. Originally configured for eight tracks, declines in passenger traffic led to elimination of all but two by the time the last passenger train departed in 1968.
An ACL Roundhouse, likely at one of the major maintenance facilities (Tampa?) rather than the WIlmington facility noted in the caption. ACL locomotive 250 shown in the picture now resides outside the Wilmingon Railroad Museum.
The Wilmington ACL Passenger Terminal and General Offices (1913). Ticketing and passenger services were available through the waiting room entered from Front Street (to the left) with the passenger concourse just beyond. The corner door led to stairs and elevator to company offices arrayed on the floors above. 
The Demolition of the Passenger Terminal by controlled implosion in 1970. Once cleared, the land was deeded to the City of Wilmington as part of a collection of parcels that became the campus of Cape Fear Community College. Today, a new classroom building stand on this spot, named Union Station and echoing some key architectural characteristics of the 1913 building.
ACL Engine #59 - Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1891. By this time the venerable 4-4-0 design had pretty much run its course, being supplanted by ten-wheelers, Mikados, Pacifics, and other designs suited for longer, heavier, and faster service.