Aiken Railway Company

The Aiken Railway and its sister railroad the Greenville & Western, are a rarity in this era of shortline holding companies: a pair of locally owned, homegrown railroads. Here, the money stays at home. The emphasis is on keeping it simple, safe, and, with a little luck, comfortably solvent. Both railroads are divisions of the Western Carolina Railway Service Corp., owned by Steven Hawkins, president, and his wife, Cheryl, who serves as the company's chief financial officer. Hawkins is a native of the area with a resume full of both shortline and Class I experience. He bought the Greenville & Western from CSX in 2006, [and] followed up in 2012 by leasing the 18.9 miles of the Aiken Railway from Norfolk Southern. Configured like a sideways "Y," Aiken runs from the NS connection at Warrenville eastward 6 miles into Aiken, then splits in two, one line running east 7 miles to a point near Oakwood, the other north 6.4 miles to North Aiken.

Kevin P. Kreefe, A Tale of Two South Carolina Shortlines - TRAINS magazine - April 2019

Western Carolina Railway Service Corporation is a new company with a true vision toward changing how the rail industry is managed and operated. The corporation is committed to serving God, our Families, our Customers, and our Communities. Albeit on a local level ... as Carolinians committed to serving our Carolinas ... the company is committed to propagating such change through the very belief that we can and will lead by example. I am committed to making a difference in this industry and am proud to call the Carolinas home.

Steven C. Hawkins - Western Carolina Railway Service Corporation

The two Aiken GP3Os are kept at the company's small yard just east of downtown Aiken. Regular running maintenance is performed on site; for heavier work, the company relies on the services of Republic locomotive, a rebuilder and manufacturer in Greenville. The profile of the railroad and the nature of the traffic make the extra heft of the 2,250-hp Geeps necessary. No. 4201 is the former BNSF 2464, delivered to Santa Fe in April 1963, and No. 4202 is ex-BNSF 2473, delivered in May 1963. Although they wear the Aiken reporting marks, both units are owned by Greenville & Western and leased to Aiken.

Kevin P. Kreefe, A Tale of Two South Carolina Shortlines - TRAINS magazine - April 2019

Aiken Beginnings

The South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company was established in 1828. William Aiken, president of the Railroad Company and one of South Carolina’s leading cotton merchants, hired Horatio Allen, a distinguished engineer who later built the Brooklyn Bridge, to build a railroad from Charleston to Hamburg, South Carolina, a site on the Savannah River. Work began in 1830 and on October 2, 1833, the first train arrived in the newly established town of Aiken, named in honor of the first railroad president. In 1834, engineers Alfred Dexter and C. O. Pascalis laid out the town with its wide streets and parkways, and Aiken was chartered in 1835. Aiken attracted many visitors, particularly wealthy Charlestonians who spent their summers at the "place of retreat from the heat and malaria of unhealthier regions." In 1865, as the War Between the States neared a conclusion, Confederate General Joseph Wheeler took his position in the town of Aiken to oppose Sherman’s raid and put an end to the Union advance westward. It was one of Sherman’s rare defeats along the way.

City of Aiken Tourism Division