Connections at Belton
The Pickens Railway's primary purpose for coming to Belton, SC is for the connection it offers with another shortline - the Greenville and Western. The GRLW's former Piedmont and Northern line connects the PICK to the CSX, providing a second long-haul outlet for traffic other than the NS at Anderson, SC.
The Tuesday I visited, the crew on the Belton Job arrived here at the short connection track between the PICK's former Southern "V Line" (shown) into the GRLW's Belton yard (behind the camera) in late morning, but they ended up waiting quite a while for the other railroad's switch job to complete some moves before they were allowed in.
After a little bit of switching in the GRLW yard, the PICK has dug out two selected cars that are for local destinations. Here the classic U18B duo of PICK 9500 and 9507 are burbling back across US 76. They'll stop and then tie onto the hoppers at left (which turned out to be storage cars for the very end of the PICK's main) and with cars on both ends, make the long shove south to serve two industries remaining near Honea Path, SC. When they return, they'll finish bringing the rest of their inbound train (seen in the distance) into the GRLW yard to complete the handoff.
Connections at Belton
The Pickens Railway's primary purpose for coming to Belton, SC is for the connection it offers with another shortline - the Greenville and Western. The GRLW's former Piedmont and Northern line connects the PICK to the CSX, providing a second long-haul outlet for traffic other than the NS at Anderson, SC.
The Tuesday I visited, the crew on the Belton Job arrived here at the short connection track between the PICK's former Southern "V Line" (shown) into the GRLW's Belton yard (behind the camera) in late morning, but they ended up waiting quite a while for the other railroad's switch job to complete some moves before they were allowed in.
After a little bit of switching in the GRLW yard, the PICK has dug out two selected cars that are for local destinations. Here the classic U18B duo of PICK 9500 and 9507 are burbling back across US 76. They'll stop and then tie onto the hoppers at left (which turned out to be storage cars for the very end of the PICK's main) and with cars on both ends, make the long shove south to serve two industries remaining near Honea Path, SC. When they return, they'll finish bringing the rest of their inbound train (seen in the distance) into the GRLW yard to complete the handoff.