NC RAILROADING

[Anonymous]

[?]I have a question for every one. I admit that North Carolina may not exactly being my favorite state but I feel that we've been over looked. I must wonder why no one has ever thought of Hamlet NC for a TRAINS HOTSPOT feature.Ok so only two AMTRAK trains stop there. But smack in the middle of town is not one but two wye's, and a crossing. You can easily see in excess of 40 to 60 trains a day. Hamlet also boasts not one but two rail yards, one of which is a hump yard. The old Williams is no longer active, but is for RIP and storage.You want to vintage ACL SAL equipment,go to the old Williams yard.All of the train watching can be done from legal parking spaces down town and the CSX yard crews are normally very friendly. Just ask permission at the Hump yard tower first. If you have never been to Hamlet, it's a very(and I do mean very)small town. The CSX yard is bigger than the town.It's on hwy 74. The people in the town are very nice and just good ol country folks. But you will they very protective of the railroad. So give this little NC town a try. By the way as I write this, I'm in Winston Salem NC, traffic here is almost dead.[:(!][:(!][:(!]

[csxns]

Hamlet was listed in Trains mag as a hot spot some time ago been their lots of times.Like to watch near the yadkin river bridge in Spencer when i go to the LHS their.

[Anonymous]

Ya'll should come on over to Tryon and Saluda if you haven't already. Come see the Saluda Grade.

[MP173]

Are trains still running on the Saluda grade?

ed

[csxns]

No Saluda does not have trains anymore just come to Bostic Yard on CSX it is not too far from Saluda and Thermal Belt also runs in Forest City NC a few miles from Bostic NC.

[Anonymous]

Trains haven't run through Saluda since December 2001. They cut the tracks west of Saluda and east of Landrum, S.C. so that the tracks didn't have to be maintained. Haven't been abandoned yet...

[dstill]

I see the post on Bostic and Forest City. Does the Thermal Belt have its own power?

[csxns]

Last time i saw the Thermal it was a switcher type sounded like it was powered by a CAT diesel.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget the Transportation Museum at Spencer where the Southern such things as the Seaboard E-6, Southern F-7and E-8, Seaboard (Gainsville Midline) Decapod and other treasures are kept at the old Southern Railway Shops near Salisbury half way between Atlanta and Washington D.C.