By Tom Perry
The Mount Airy & Eastern Railway, also known as the Virginia and North Carolina Railroad, nicknamed the “Dinky,” was a narrow gauge (36” inside track to track) short-line railroad that ran from Mount Airy, North Carolina, to Kibler Valley, Virginia, between 1899-1924. Kibler and Kay was the lumber company from West Virginia that gave the valley the name, which was the terminus of the narrow-gauge railroad.
The Dinky started as a logging railroad carrying logs and lumber from Kibler to the sawmill at the depot in Mount Airy. After a short time, due to demand, passenger, mail, and dry goods services began stopping at local points along the way.
Passengers enjoyed Sunday excursions to White Sulphur Springs and Danube Church in Kibler Valley, where the railroad even took a circus to the banks of the Dan River. Jeb Stuart’s mother, Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart, noted during her time at Laurel Hill that people were coming to “take the waters.” The Dinky railroad went by the White Sulphur Springs Hotel along the Ararat River downstream from Laurel Hill, carrying picnickers, Sunday school groups, and courting couples sitting in chairs on flatcars. Today, the White Sulphur Springs is a wedding venue and home to some very nice cabins you can rent. The Dinky weaved its way through the beautiful countryside, following the Ararat River, Clark’s Creek, Fall Creek, and the Dan River, keeping close to the water to fill its coal-fired boiler.
When the railroad came through, it is believed they graded the roadbed. The railroad declined and went broke, possibly due to a catastrophic weather event in 1916, and was unable to recover. It is believed that when the railroad ceased operations in the mid-1920s, the tracks were removed, and the commissioner of the roads moved the highway from the wagon road to the lower-grade railroad bed. It remained here until the late 1930s, when the newly formed VDOT straightened the road. All three transitions are visible on the 1948 aerial map.
Around the bend, the Dinky crossed the current Ararat Highway. In the field below the J.E.B. Stuart Grocery was the Pedigo Stop with a wooden station platform. The outline of the roadbed can still be seen in the 1948 aerial. In the house lived Dr. David Floyd Pedigo, the grandfather of Porter Bondurant and Carrie Sue Culler, who gave an interview about riding the Dinky as a child.
Also living there was Joseph Reed Pedigo, brother to David, who was Postmaster of “The Hollow Post Office,” located at the home, from 1872 to 1916, when it moved to the top of the Hill at the intersection of the Hollow Road and Ararat Highway. The Dinky had a daily mail service to the Pedigo Station. Lewis Pedigo, the father of Dr. David and Joseph, the county surveyor, moved his family to “The Hollow” in 1853 after purchasing 400 acres of land next to the Stuarts. It is safe to say the Pedigos were friends with the Stuarts, as they served as witnesses to legal documents for Mrs. Stuart after Archibald’s death in 1855.
At the J.E.B. Stuart birthplace, you can see a recreated 24’ section with the original Dinky railroad track unearthed during a recent excavation 1/4 mile away and generously donated by the Brown Family. You can see what is believed to be the original wagon road from Mount Airy, North Carolina, to Taylorsville, Virginia (present day Stuart) that J.E.B. Stuart used.
Porter Bondurant’s grandson, Chip Bondurant, was instrumental in putting up an exhibit to “The Dinky,” the Mount Airy and Eastern Railway, along with David Lusk and Ronnie Haynes at Laurel Hill, the Birthplace of J. E. B. Stuart. It is important to me to pass this history along to the next generation, and Chip has accompanied me to several talks about the railroad. You should not hoard history, but share it to keep it alive for the future.
Porter and Carrie Sue rode the narrow gauge railroad that went from Mount Airy, Surry County, North Carolina, to Kibler Valley, Patrick County, Virginia. Many years ago, I recorded a video of Carrie Sue and Porter discussing it, which is available on my YouTube channel and on the Birthplace’s website, www.jebstuart.org.
Anthony Terry was also helpful to my research about the railroad and even found about a quarter of a mile of it still buried on his and neighbor James Clement’s property in Ararat, Virginia.
The standard gauge railroad reached Mount Airy in 1888, with a spur built three years later to what is today the world’s largest open face granite quarry. The Dinky started beside this spur from this line, which was once Quality Mills and is now a carport manufacturer.
Patrick County had another railroad, the Danville and Western, affectionately known as the “Dick and Willie,” which is part of a walking trail in downtown Stuart, Virginia, today. Larry Hopkins wrote a book about that railroad that I believe is available at the Patrick County Historical Society.
Over a decade ago, railroad historian Kenney Kirkman of Collinsville, Virginia, and I began to walk what we thought was the route of the Dinky. Over the course of several winters, when the snakes were asleep, and you could see the bed of the railroad, we walked the Dinky. The result was a book I wrote, A Dinky Railroad: The Mount Airy and Eastern Railway, which is still available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and Audible. We ended up at Danube Presbyterian Church, speaking on Heritage Day about the railroad that helped build the church.
You can watch Porter and Carrie Sue talk about the Dinky Railroad https://www.jebstuart.org/news.cfm?ID=164#video.
