The Southern Serves The South
Sometimes railroad museums and tourist railroads can offer up pretty authentic scenes and its hard to get more purely Southern than this! The details abound in this scene from rolling stock, to structures and even proper uniquely SOU lineside signage.
Southern 6133 is FP7A built by EMD in Apr. 1950 and sublettered CNO&TP. The unit had a remarkable career lasting longer than many of its siblings as part of the excursion fleet most famous for its assorted steam locomotivesm. Finally retired in 1980 it was donated to the fledging museum where volunteers restored it to its original green/ imitation aluminum paint scheme. The fully operational unit is right at home in the former Spencer Shop complex providing rides around the grounds of what is now the absolutely fabulous North Carolina Transportation Museum.
What is now the museum complex was once the principle steam shops of the Southern Railway having been opened in 1896 and named after Samuel Spencer who was president of the new railroad at the time. The Southern had only been formed two years earlier when J.P. Morgan interests acquired the bankruptcy Richmond and Danville Railroad and combined it with the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway. Tapped to lead the new railroad for Morgan, Spencer, a talented civil engineer and former Confederate cavalry officer (who had served under legendary General Nathan Bedford Forrest) became its first president. Under his leadership, the mileage of the Southern Railway doubled, the number of passengers served annually increased to nearly 12 million, and annual earnings increased from $17 million to $54 million. After his death, the Southern grew to become one of the strongest, most profitable, and progressive roads in the nation.
Immediately seeing the need for a modern system shop, a site beside the mainline roughly halfway between Washington and Atlanta just outside the town of Salisbury was chosen. At its peak around WWII up to 3000 people worked at the shop complex. Original buildings included a machine shop, storehouse building, office building, wood working shop, boiler shop, a power plant, and a large 37-bay roundhouse (purportedly the largest surving in the US) and accompanying turntable. Although Spencer Shops survived into the diesel era, the facility was outdated by the early 1970s and shuttered before being donated to the state of North Carolina in 1977.
To learn a bit more about Spencer, who infamously died young in a tragic train crash on his own railroad only a decade after the opening of this shop, check out this link: www.ncpedia.org/geography/spencer
Spencer, North Carolina
Thursday May 28, 2015
The Southern Serves The South
Sometimes railroad museums and tourist railroads can offer up pretty authentic scenes and its hard to get more purely Southern than this! The details abound in this scene from rolling stock, to structures and even proper uniquely SOU lineside signage.
Southern 6133 is FP7A built by EMD in Apr. 1950 and sublettered CNO&TP. The unit had a remarkable career lasting longer than many of its siblings as part of the excursion fleet most famous for its assorted steam locomotivesm. Finally retired in 1980 it was donated to the fledging museum where volunteers restored it to its original green/ imitation aluminum paint scheme. The fully operational unit is right at home in the former Spencer Shop complex providing rides around the grounds of what is now the absolutely fabulous North Carolina Transportation Museum.
What is now the museum complex was once the principle steam shops of the Southern Railway having been opened in 1896 and named after Samuel Spencer who was president of the new railroad at the time. The Southern had only been formed two years earlier when J.P. Morgan interests acquired the bankruptcy Richmond and Danville Railroad and combined it with the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway. Tapped to lead the new railroad for Morgan, Spencer, a talented civil engineer and former Confederate cavalry officer (who had served under legendary General Nathan Bedford Forrest) became its first president. Under his leadership, the mileage of the Southern Railway doubled, the number of passengers served annually increased to nearly 12 million, and annual earnings increased from $17 million to $54 million. After his death, the Southern grew to become one of the strongest, most profitable, and progressive roads in the nation.
Immediately seeing the need for a modern system shop, a site beside the mainline roughly halfway between Washington and Atlanta just outside the town of Salisbury was chosen. At its peak around WWII up to 3000 people worked at the shop complex. Original buildings included a machine shop, storehouse building, office building, wood working shop, boiler shop, a power plant, and a large 37-bay roundhouse (purportedly the largest surving in the US) and accompanying turntable. Although Spencer Shops survived into the diesel era, the facility was outdated by the early 1970s and shuttered before being donated to the state of North Carolina in 1977.
To learn a bit more about Spencer, who infamously died young in a tragic train crash on his own railroad only a decade after the opening of this shop, check out this link: www.ncpedia.org/geography/spencer
Spencer, North Carolina
Thursday May 28, 2015