When World War I ended in 1918 and the troops came home, folks felt optimistic about the future and eager to get on with their lives. This optimism led to an extraordinary decade that brought major changes in the way citizens traveled by rails, on roads, and in the air. People had been traveling by train for decades. During the 1920s, Southern Railway operated one hundred daily trains throughout the state. The railroad also operated a large maintenance and repair shop at Spencer (the current site of the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Rowan County). Another large railroad, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, located a maintenance shop in Rocky Mount and the company headquarters in Wilmington.