Cool Carolina Morning
Norfolk and Western Class J 4-8-4 #611 (Roanoke Shops 1950) is eastbound on Norfolk Southern's S Line headed from Spencer to Old Fort and Asheville via the famed 'Southern Loops.' She is approaching the diamond at Barber Junction MP S11.5 on the line from Salisbury to Asheville and MP L39.4 on the line from Winston-Salem to Charlotte they are will cross. What is now the S Line was built through here around 1858 by the Western North Carolina Railroad Company but didn't reach the Asheville area until 1879. After three bankruptcies the company finally entered the Southern Railway fold in 1894. Meanwhile the modern day L Line dates from 1898 when the Southern Railway extended the shortline North Carolina Midland Railroad (that reached as far as Mocksville from Winston-Salem and that they had acquired in 1894) 54 miles south to Mooresville.
This train was billed as 'The Blue Ridge Special' and was making a more than 300 mile round trip as NS train 957 on what was day two of the 2016 excursion season on NS...back when that was a thing. The air was cool and clear and made for some impressive steam and smoke shows all along the way.
Unincorporated Barber
Rowan County, North Carolina
Sunday April 10, 2016
Cool Carolina Morning
Norfolk and Western Class J 4-8-4 #611 (Roanoke Shops 1950) is eastbound on Norfolk Southern's S Line headed from Spencer to Old Fort and Asheville via the famed 'Southern Loops.' She is approaching the diamond at Barber Junction MP S11.5 on the line from Salisbury to Asheville and MP L39.4 on the line from Winston-Salem to Charlotte they are will cross. What is now the S Line was built through here around 1858 by the Western North Carolina Railroad Company but didn't reach the Asheville area until 1879. After three bankruptcies the company finally entered the Southern Railway fold in 1894. Meanwhile the modern day L Line dates from 1898 when the Southern Railway extended the shortline North Carolina Midland Railroad (that reached as far as Mocksville from Winston-Salem and that they had acquired in 1894) 54 miles south to Mooresville.
This train was billed as 'The Blue Ridge Special' and was making a more than 300 mile round trip as NS train 957 on what was day two of the 2016 excursion season on NS...back when that was a thing. The air was cool and clear and made for some impressive steam and smoke shows all along the way.
Unincorporated Barber
Rowan County, North Carolina
Sunday April 10, 2016