Photos by Neil Caudle 



Coal pile rising near the railway 



Mayor Bud Dixon of Morehead City 



trains a day descending on downtown 

 Morehead City. But despite their 

 assurances, Dixon says he doesn't 

 know what recourse his community 

 might have if the trains come rolling in 

 on their way to a new terminal on 

 Radio Island. 



"I don't think it's going to happen," 

 Dixon says, "but I don't know yet 

 what we could do to stop them if it 

 did." 



The Coastal Resources Commission 

 has made the development of coal ter- 

 minals on the island dependent on 

 state-approved port and transporta- 

 tion plans that would prescribe ways of 

 untangling the traffic and environmen- 

 tal problems, both on the rails and 

 around the harbor. And, Coastal 

 Management officials say they believe 

 any development would have to be 

 consistent with those plans, or the 

 development could not be approved. 



Right now, that message seems to 

 imply that coal headed for Radio 

 Island would have to bypass 



Morehead City's business district, 

 either by a new railway or by some 

 alternative means, such as slurry 

 pipelines or barges. 



But the question remains: Who'll 

 pay for such improvements? Marvin 

 Wilson, Southern Railway's chief 

 engineer in the company's Atlanta, 

 Georgia office, says he doubts his com- 

 pany will sink millions into a new 

 railroad route without some assurance 

 that the coal industry's boom doesn't 

 turn to bust. 



"We've already laid some new 

 welded rail between New Bern and 

 Morehead," Wilson says, "and if 

 you're talking about just getting the 

 track we've got now ready for more 

 traffic, we could do that fast — this 

 year. But if you're talking about 

 bypasses around New Bern or 

 Morehead, that's something else." 



Wilson says estimates of $50 million 

 to $100 million for a rail bypass around 

 either city are "on the low side." 



"It's going to be hard to get around 



Morehead City," he explains. "To the 

 north, there's some valuable residen- 

 tial area. To the south, there's water. 

 It would take three to five years to buy 

 up the right-of-ways and build." 



(Gulf-Interstate, the company plan- 

 ning a large coal terminal on Radio 

 Island, hopes to be in business by 1984 

 with an initial capacity of about five 

 million tons a year.) 



While Southern is unlikely to sink 

 millions into bypasses unless it knows 

 coal shipments will pay off, the coal 

 companies are unlikely to make 

 guarantees until they know they can 

 get their coal to sea. And, state of- 

 ficials are reluctant to approve plans 

 for new terminals until some headway 

 is made on the transportation 

 problems. 



"They're just going to have to get 

 together and work something out," 

 Dixon says. "They've all got 

 something to gain from it." 



—Neil Caudle 



