The Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad Company (ANCRR) was incorporated by the 1852 General Assembly with a capitalization of nine hundred thousand dollars. Initially, the board of directors consisted of eight members elected annually by the company's stockholders. The 1854-1855 legislature raised the capital stock to $1.6 million and authorized the state to purchase two-thirds of it. This act also made the ANCRR subject to general management by a board of twelve directors. Eight of the members were appointed by the Board of Internal Improvements, a state agency headed by the governor. The four remaining directors were elected by the private shareholders.

The company was formally chartered in July of 1854, and its road was completed in 1858. The service area of the ANCRR ran from Morehead City to Goldsboro, where it connected with tracks of the North Carolina Railroad Company (NCRR). Like the ANCRR, the NCRR was an enterprise whose principal stock was owned by the state.

During the 1860s, stockholders of the ANCRR made several efforts to consolidate their company with the NCRR, but failed. Though under economic distress, the ANCRR's board of directors continued to operate the railway until June of 1881. At that time, the ANCRR's right of way and other operating assets were leased to the Midland Railroad Company. Meanwhile, the NCRR also leased its properties and tracks, first to the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and then to the Southern Railway for a term of ninety-nine years, from 1895 to 1994.

ANCRR's assets remained under Midland's operation until August of 1904, when they passed into the hands of the Goldsboro, New Bern, and Morehead City Railroad Company. By lease and consolidation in 1913, the ANCRR's properties came under control of the Norfolk and Southern Railroad Company. This lease was cancelled by the board of directors in 1934, and properties were under the full direction of the state from May of 1936 to August of 1939. At that time, the ANCRR was leased to a newly formed company, the Atlantic and East Carolina Railway Company (AECR) for a term of twenty-five years. In turn, that company sub-leased the line to its parent company, the Southern Railway Company. That lease agreement was amended in 1954, changing the year of expiration to 1994, the same year as the expiration of the NCRR lease. In 1957 the AECR became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Southern Railway Corporation, which itself became a majority-owned subsidiary of the Norfolk-Southern Corporation in 1982.

In the meantime, the General Assembly of 1925 had transferred certain duties heretofore exercised by the Board of Internal Improvements to the governor and Council of State. Under provisions of the act, the governor was charged with appointing agents or directors in railroads and other works of internal improvement in which the state had an economic interest. As established in 1854-1855, the board of directors of the ANCRR continued to consist of eight members representing the state and four representing individual stockholders.

Under the Executive Organization Act of 1971, the board of directors of the ANCRR was placed under the general management of the Department of Transportation and Highway Safety. By the terms of the transfer, however, the board retained its independence and its previously assigned statutory powers. Through legislation passed in 1975, that department was reorganized and renamed the Department of Transportation. The General Assembly of that year also authorized the department to make a study of the ANCRR and the NCRR and the state's interest in both companies.

In September of 1989, the NCRR acquired the ANCRR through a merger of the two companies. Historically, each railroad has had varied experiences of lease and consolidation. Yet both were similar in their corporate structures, as well as in their patterns of ownership and operation. The two corporate charters were combined with few changes. Under terms of the new charter, however, the board of directors was increased from twelve to fifteen members. The governor appointed ten of these in staggered terms totaling three years each. The board's president, secretary, and treasurer were to be elected from among these appointments. The private shareholders selected the board's other five directors, including the vice president, assistant secretary, and assistant treasurer.

Since the merger, the new organization has been known as the North Carolina Railroad Company. Like the old ANCRR, the merged company continues to lease all its properties to the Southern Railway Company and its subsidiary, the Atlantic and East Carolina Railway Company. Both of these companies fall under the umbrella of the Norfolk-Southern Corporation.