'I think I can.' (businessman Don McGrady)

• Author: Eldridge, Lisa

Don McGrady pulls over near an intersection in tiny Ruth, just north of Forest City, and jumps out of his Bronco to check a bumpy train crossing. He bends over and peers at the rail, stepping right and left to avoid cars as they whiz by.

McGrady looks up and grins - he likes what he sees. Apparently, Norfolk Southern has smoothed over the crossing. He hadn't expected that. "It could have easily cost me $10,000," he says.

That's one less thing to worry about, and his step is a little lighter as he jumps back in the Bronco and takes off, following the Forest City rail line to Gilkey. Along the way, he passes companies that run freight on the 13-mile line and others that might-if he can persuade them.

McGrady, 34, is a dreamer and a doer, fully aware of the possibilities and problems of running his own railroad. For most of his 11 years in railroading, he's had it in his mind to one day go out on his own. After some starts and stops, it looks as if this time it's finally going to happen.

He has worked out a deal with the state, Rutherford County, local shippers and CSX Transportation to operate the Forest City-Gilkey line, abandoned by Norfolk Southern in May 1989, and the three-and-a-half-mile Forest City-Bostic line, which CSX is selling.

McGrady's Thermal Belt Railway, starting in Gilkey, will deliver freight to CSX's main line. (The rail is named, like many other places along the base of the mountains, for the temperate air that warms up as it descends to the Piedmont.)

"I had kind of hoped I could settle down with a good job at a short-line railroad," says McGrady, who worked almost five years for Laurinburg and Southern Railroad, at the other end of the state. "But something comes up and stares you in the face, and your mind starts ticking."

That something staring him in the face was Norfolk Southern's plan to abandon the Forest City-Gilkey line. Not that it was any prize - Norfolk Southern hauled about 550 cars on it in 1987 and showed a $176,000 loss. "It looked like a line that ought to be abandoned, to tell you the truth," McGrady says.

But he studied the abandonment application and visited Rutherford County. He took the county's low unemployment rate as a good sign, along with its commitment to economic development. He went home and did a few calculations.

He figured he could run the line cheaper than a Class 1 railroad can because he doesn't have to deal with union rules, which require a three- or four-man crew. Running with a two-man crew, he could operate the short line with just three part-timers.

And he'd be there, knocking on doors to drum...