Rumors Spread About Electric Line to Goldsboro, May 9, 1925

More Talk of Electric Line to Goldsboro. . . Acquisition of Norfolk-Southern Gives Credence to Proposed Road to East. . . Maybe a Hitch Here. . . State Ownership of Road from Goldsboro to Beaufort Presents Problem

Durham, May 8—Although it is still a matter for conjecture, evidence becomes more abundant that the Duke interests intend hooking up the Piedmont and Northern, the Norfolk Southern, and the Durham and Southern and Georgia and Florida into a real system extending from Madison, Fla., to Norfolk, and containing approximately 1,500 miles of trackage, says an article in the Durham Herald.

Whether or not this system will be electrified in the event that it is created by the Dukes is problematic. Only one unit—the Piedmont and Northern operating in the Charlotte territory through a large portion of Piedmont North and South Carolina—is already electrically operated. Rumor has it that the system will become a part of the great Duke electrical development now gradually overspreading the South.

Credence is given to the rumors by cause of recent acquisition by Ernest Williams of control of the Norfolk Southern. Mr. Williams is allied with the Dukes. So is John Skelton Williams, receiver for the Georgia and Florida, who has intimated that the road will construct additional mileage between its Northern terminus and Greenwood, S.C., where it could easily hook up with the P.N. into Spartanburg, leaving only the gap between Spartanburg and Gastonia to give it direct service to Norfolk through Raleigh, Wilson, Greenville, Washington, and Elizabeth City.

Piedmont and Northern and Durham and Southern, the latter of which would give the connection with Durham is already directly in Duke hands. J.B. Duke is president of the P. & N. and B.N. Duke is president of the Durham and Southern.

It has been said that the plans of the Dukes include the construction of a direct line from Charlotte to Durham. This would be a part of the Piedmont and Northern. Eventually the road, according to this rumor, will be extended to Beaufort. Acquisition of the Norfolk Southern was considered a part of this plan. That portion of the Norfolk Southern between Goldsboro and Morehead City, however, is not owned by the railway company. The company has a long time lease from the state of North Carolina.

From the front page of The Goldsboro News, May 9, 1925

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1925-05-09/ed-1/seq-2/#words=MAY+9%2C+1925