Helene-ravaged railroad rebuilt to NC factory supporting global semiconductor industry

SPRUCE PINE, N.C. — Freight trains are once again running to a western North Carolina factory that supports the global semiconductor industry.

Heavily impacted by Helene, CSX Transportation has rebuilt part of their damaged railroad in the state.

“It’s been a great team effort to get us back up there to work the Quartz company in Spruce Pine,” David Snyder, a train operations manager for CSX, said in a company video posted to LinkedIn. 

Quartz is one of the two companies that manufacture high-purity quartz in the western North Carolina community.

Spruce Pine, a town of only 2,200 residents, is home to the world’s highest-quality quartz deposits, a major component of the tiny chips that power everything from smartphones to cars. 

Much of western North Carolina faced damage from the historic storm on Sept. 27.

“Hurricane Helene pretty much stopped us in our tracks,” Synder said. “Washed out our tracks. Just destroyed the railroad.”

Since the storm, CSX, along with competitor Norfolk Southern, have been working to rebuild their damaged infrastructure. This latest section of reopened tracks has allowed CSX to reach this vital customer.

Now that trains can reach Spruce Pine, Synder says the railroad is continuing repairs further down the tracks.

“We’re going the right way since we’ve gotten to Spruce Pine,” he says. “We’re actually a little north of there now rebuilding the track structure, and we still have a lot of devastation to go through. Lots of track to pull out of the river. We’ve still got a bridge that we have to rebuild, but we’re taking steps in the right direction.”

While repairs are being completed in western North Carolina, CSX and other railroads have been rerouting trains to enter the mountains from the east. Some of those trains have been running through Charlotte.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Global tech industry threatened by Helene flooding

After initially shutting down because of the storm’s impacts, Quartz began a phased restart of operations by the end of October. 

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