The final stage in the Queen Street Streetscape project took Charles Hughes Construction for a surprise Monday when the crew discovered an old railroad track underneath the intersection of Queen and Shine Street.

A backhoe loader lifted chunks of asphalt, along with some whole and broken railroad ties, Monday, Sept. 23, on the first day of building two concrete intersections on South Queen. The discovery left Charles Hughes, owner of Charles Hughes Construction, wondering how long the railroad has been there, how far does it travel, and why did someone pave over it.

According to carolana.com – a link provided by the North Carolina Railroad Company – the railroad was chartered in 1907 and was called the Kinston Carolina Railroad and Lumber Company in 1909. The railroad is not part of the North Carolina Railroad Company, according to the company’s director of corporate communications, Megen Hoenk.

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Local historian Bill Rowland received a 1914 map from Lenoir County Geographic Information System coordinator Wayland Humphrey which shows the railroad beginning on Shine, crossing Queen, traveling over the Neuse River near Bright and King Streets, and making its way through the now Neuseway Nature Center onto Pink Hill and Beulaville.

Rowland said part of the iron track can be seen at the Neuseway Nature Center, and what’s left of the railroad’s trestles on the banks of the Neuse River can be viewed at the center. According to Rowland, Hwy. 11 going toward Pink Hill is perfectly straight in some areas due to the once Kinston Carolina Railroad.

Rowland does not know the exact dates when the railroad was paved over on Shine and Queen.

“You can see the cracks in the pavement where they didn’t do a good job paving,” Rowland said. “I used my metal detector to find the tracks and wondered why it was paved over.”

According to the NCDOT Division 2 Engineer’s Office in Kinston, no files or maps of when the railroad track was paved over on Shine and Queen could be found by The Free Press deadline.

As for the Queen Street Streetscape project, Hughes said the discovery of the railroad has not slowed down construction. The two intersections should be complete on South Queen by October 7, and the section from King Street to Blount Street with the angled parking is predicted to finish by the end of September.

Hughes said the artifacts are currently at his landfill if someone wants them, and they need to call his office at 252-566-5040 if they choose to pick them up. Matt Young, director of the CSS Neuse Civil War Museum in Kinston, said the museum will "probably" not take the artifacts because they are past the Civil War time period.