Balsam Ascent
With 13 cars pulling on the drawbars of the 2 GP39-2s, Blue Ridge Southern T59 tackles the 4% ruling grade of Balsam on their journey back to Canton, NC. This portion of the Murphy Branch is not often documented due to its inaccessible & the commitment needed to document it, along with the fact that this job would, at least before Evergreen in Canton shut down, only run west of Waynesville on an as-needed basis. On this day though, I happened to be real lucky in that they were delivering 5 new-to-them passenger coaches to Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, so they would all the way to the end of their trackage in Sylva along with working a couple of customers this side of Balsam. Getting to document an ascent up the mountain at several locations was quite the experience seeing the grade, rock cuts, cliff hugging & bridges as I listened to the 2 turbocharged 645 prime movers puke their guts out. While this was happening, I thought to myself how despite having a ruling gradient of 4%, & it is definitely 4% from what I could see along the back roads & hiking, this is still only the SECOND STEEPEST grade on the famed Southern Railway Murphy Branch. Just another reason why this branch became so famous & popular to document among railfans. 1-16-23
Balsam Ascent
With 13 cars pulling on the drawbars of the 2 GP39-2s, Blue Ridge Southern T59 tackles the 4% ruling grade of Balsam on their journey back to Canton, NC. This portion of the Murphy Branch is not often documented due to its inaccessible & the commitment needed to document it, along with the fact that this job would, at least before Evergreen in Canton shut down, only run west of Waynesville on an as-needed basis. On this day though, I happened to be real lucky in that they were delivering 5 new-to-them passenger coaches to Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, so they would all the way to the end of their trackage in Sylva along with working a couple of customers this side of Balsam. Getting to document an ascent up the mountain at several locations was quite the experience seeing the grade, rock cuts, cliff hugging & bridges as I listened to the 2 turbocharged 645 prime movers puke their guts out. While this was happening, I thought to myself how despite having a ruling gradient of 4%, & it is definitely 4% from what I could see along the back roads & hiking, this is still only the SECOND STEEPEST grade on the famed Southern Railway Murphy Branch. Just another reason why this branch became so famous & popular to document among railfans. 1-16-23