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Bonsal is an unincorporated community in the New Hill, North Carolina postal district, in extreme southwestern Wake County, North Carolina, United States. Bonsal was a railroad junction between the Durham & South Carolina Railroad (D&SC) (originally chartered as the New Hope Valley Railroad) and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (originally the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad). The New Hope Valley Railroad route was abandoned in the late 1970s.

The original name of the community was Godsey after the Godsey Farm in the area, but this was changed to Bonsal in 1905 after William Roscoe Bonsal, builder and first President of the Durham & South Carolina Railroad (see below). The community was briefly incorporated from 1907 to 1917 to allow the citizens to vote in favor of bills supporting temperance and prohibition. The town charter was revoked in 1917 when the citizens, having accomplished their purpose for being incorporated at all, refused to pay town taxes.

Bonsal is now the site of the North Carolina Railway Museum (NCRM) and the operating New Hope Valley Railway (NHVRy) tourist line. The line owns approximately 6 miles of track between Bonsal and New Hill, North Carolina, operating for passengers on the first Sunday of each month from May to November and both Saturday and Sunday the first two weekends in December. Other special event trains are operated at other times throughout the year.

The railway north of New Hill, North Carolina has been converted into the American Tobacco Trail.

External links

• New Hope Valley Railroad & NC Railroad Museum
• Norfolk & Southern Railway Company Historical Society
• The American Tobacco Trail
• Seaboard Air Line Railroad

35°39′38″N 78°58′25″W / 35.66056°N 78.97361°W / 35.66056; -78.97361

v t e Municipalities and communities of Wake County, North Carolina, United States
County seat: Raleigh
Cities	Durham‡ Raleigh‡
Towns	Apex Cary‡ Fuquay-Varina Garner Holly Springs Knightdale Morrisville‡ Rolesville Wake Forest‡ Wendell Zebulon
Townships	Bartons Creek Buckhorn Cary Cedar Fork Holly Springs House Creek Leesville Little River Marks Creek Meredith Middle Creek Neuse New Light Panther Branch Raleigh St. Mary's St. Matthew's Swift Creek Wake Forest White Oak
Unincorporated communities	Auburn Bayleaf Bonsal Carpenter Chestnut Hills Clegg Eagle Rock Falls Feltonville Forestville Friendship Green Level Holland Hopkins Kennebec Leesville Lizard Lick McCullers Crossroads Neuse New Hill New Light Purnell Riley Hill Shotwell Stony Hill Wakefield Willow Spring
Footnotes	‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties
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• Unincorporated communities in Wake County, North Carolina
• Unincorporated communities in North Carolina