Hold Your Horses!
Early 1890s photo downtown in Greensboro on main street showing two fellows holding their horses while the Richmond & Danville passenger train passes on the mainline and as the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley engine and its gondola enters the wye from the road's passenger Depot spur.
A typical scene involving frightened workhorses whereas the experienced single horses pulling "hacks" [taxis]at the nearby Depot took the noise and imposing monsters in stride. The R&D Depot[still standing] is across the tracks behind the saloon and the CF&YV Depot was down to the right[burned]. Tracks today are the same location as in 1890.
The building on the left between the two railroads is the Cascade Saloon which still stands but in serious disrepair. The City is trying to acquire and restore it because if demolished Norfolk Southern can prohibit rebuilding on the site.
By 1899 the Southern Ry will have itself consolidated and acquired or leased[NCRR] all four of the railroads serving Greensboro. In 1899 the Southern and ACL acquired the near bankrupt CF & YV which reached diagonally across the State from Wilmington to Mt. Airy. Southern took the Northern Division, Sanford to Mt.Airy renaming it as Atlantic & Yadkin.
The NC Attorney General sued the railroads on behalf of the citizens[and rate conscious merchants & industry in GSO] for destroying their "Mountains to Sea" railroad. The suit lasted 25 years before the Supreme Court finally ruled for the railroads. Meantime in 1916 Southern had spun off the A&Y to independent status to hand off the lawsuit and get the the A&Y debt off its own very weak balance sheet.
Meanwhile the resorts of MT. Airy worried that they would be unable to continue getting fresh oysters from the coast.