Happening at the museum

The Shoo-Fly: Wake Forest’s Famous Train

By Jennifer Smart, Assistant Director

The Wake Forest Historical Museum

Once upon a time, the most exciting event in the Town of Wake Forest was watching the train pull into the station. Evidently, this was a whole lot of fun. Explaining precisely why is a challenge that various writers have tackled over the years. This article by Wake Forest College student Sam Berends is among the best. It takes a comprehensive look at the little engine known as the Shoo-Fly, and how it captured the town’s imagination.

By Sam Berends (WFC Class of 1950)

“For the first time in history the Shoo-Fly was on time. Slowly she pulled into the siding at Wake Forest to clear the track for the through-train No. 3. The little train “was so proud of itself that it disdained to look to see if anything else were on the track, and was so tired from the unusual exertion,” that it jammed into a load of logs projecting from a boxcar on the tracks, and the Shoo-Fly wailed for the iron-horse doctor.

Mentioning the name of this little train to any residents of Wake Forest of those days will serve to bring a light to their eyes and a smile of pleasant memories to their faces, for the Shoo-Fly stood foremost in the activities of the college students throughout the 1910s-20s.

The train in question was a shoppers’ train, a commuters’ train, a picnickers’ train, and an excursion special. It consisted of a baggage car and three coaches and served many special purposes for the folk who lived in the general vicinity of Weldon, Wake Forest, and Raleigh. It left Weldon at about seven o’clock in the morning, meandered down to Raleigh, arrived there around ten o’clock, left Raleigh at four in the afternoon, and returned to Weldon the same evening. It is said to have stopped at every single house one time, and every double house two times. It was called the Shoo-Fly, in fact, because it went so slowly that it shooed the flies off the track.

The little train began running in 1905, and in the years between 1905 and 1918 it took every Sunday school class within miles of this area on their annual picnics at least once, and it also served to bring baseball and football fans to Wake Forest for games.

The favorite social activity of students at the College was to go and see the delightful old train pull in. Some even missed classes so that they could get a good seat on the bank, in an effort not to miss the sight, and in order to be within hailing distance of the locomotive. The boys yelled “whoa” as it pulled into the station and, the second it came to a standstill, onto the train they hopped to see and visit old acquaintances for a few minutes.

The March 1910 issue of The Student speaks of the “self-importance of the absurd little engine that draws the ‘Shoo-Fly,’ as it comes into the station yard, groaning and panting at its heavy load of three coaches, like Hercules bearing up the sky. As it rolled in Thursday evening, February 16, 1911, it seemed ready to burst with conceit, the very smokestack had a rakish angle, and it came to a standstill with an elephantine sigh as if it felt relieved of a huge responsibility. And it was. For five long minutes visitors spilled out of every car down into the howling mob of students in the yard, and when the train finally continued its journey, the crew sighed thankfully, ‘Praise the Lord, that’s done once more!’”

In November 1919, the Old Gold & Black carried a protest from the sophomore class about the freshmen meeting the little train on its return trip from Raleigh. The arrival in Wake Forest was scheduled at 7:05 p.m. and frosh had to be indoors by dark. In reply, the “newishes” stated that it was the duty of the entire student body to meet the train, and the president of the class suggested that the Seaboard might be induced to change the schedule.

The long arm of the law did not appreciate the students’ activities around the train. The boys used to gather on the bank beside the track to await its arrival. When the valiant little engine pulled into the station, the boys would gather around to whistle and flirt with the girls who might be the passengers. Dr. E.E. Folk says that “it was dangerous for a lady to be on the train. The boys really raised cain.”

The February 16, 1920 issue of the Old Gold & Black recounts the tale of “four speed demons who last Saturday night sought to step on the gas and break the town record for fast conduct” attendant to the visit of the Shoo-Fly. According to the story, one of the boys was flirting with a young woman on the train, two were yelling, “Run, Bill, run,” and a fourth was leading a chorus of fifteen rahs during the process. Old Gold’s article ends with an admonition to “keep well under the speed limit, even if you have to go to the other extreme and make faces at the passengers.” The lesson seems to have gone unheeded however, for we can find records in Wake Forest court files where young dandies were fined $2.65 for flirting.

Dr. G.W. Paschal, Wake Forest historian and professor emeritus of Greek, recalls that he used to defend the “young dandies,” arguing that the only way the boys could insult the girls would be to ignore them. “I’ve seen up to thirty-five get up and move to the side of the train to look at the boys,” he’ll tell you.

The attraction of the young lady passengers and the inevitable tardiness of the little “smoker” characterize the chief conveyance for Sunday school picnics, parties or other gala events, or just plain shoppers in this section for a quarter of a century. Dr. C.C. Pearson says that “the Shoo-Fly was definitely a social institution rather than a business enterprise.”

After approximately thirteen years of faithful if intermittent service, the little iron personality, the friend of the Wake Forest student body and indeed everybody in this section, ascended spiritually to train heaven, a victim of the Depression years.”

 (The Wake Forest Historical Museum, 919-556-2911, is at 414 North Main Street, Wake Forest. Admission is free. The museum is open from 10 to 12 and from 1:30 to 4:30 Tuesday through Friday, and from 2 to 5 on Sundays if there are volunteers to staff it.)

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