Train Watching

[Anonymous]

Do anyone knows where I can watch trains in South Carolina??

[Anonymous]

What area of SC are you at? I was stationed at Shaw AFB for a few years and used to take a drive out to Columbia and check out some of the yards around there. Its been a few years since then, so I can't remember the road names. I believe that daily, the Air Force runs a couple of switchers out to Cane Savanah to get jet fuel cars for shaw, I rode with the guy who ran that operation a few times, I think his name was Bud something, real friendly guy though. Up around Ridgeway there is a decent mainline with a fair ammount of traffic, and its a neat town to take photos in. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

I can only barely remember a busy north south CSX route just west of Charleston, SC. This is a good spot because all traffic must have some route out of Florida to the eastern U.S. When our bus crosse d the tracks. I could see a parked train waiting for a train in front to move, and a southbound headlight was on the horizon.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I know about the Shaw AFB switchers. I've went out there to watch the F-16s do their thing and everytime I went, the switchers from Shaw leaves with empties and most of the time comes back with a load of jet fuel. As a matter of fact, they have a 3rd switcher there now. I've been to the Norfolk Southern yard a couple of times, but I don't know where the CSX line is at. I have to make my way to Ridgeway and check the line out. Thanks for the info.

[Anonymous]

Those switchers were old Baldwin units, re-engined with Catepilar prime movers. Before I got out of the Air Force, the guy who operated the Shaw rail line (Bud?) spoke of getting a steam locomotive to restore and keeping it on base. I haven't been down there since November of 1997, and most of my friends have changed duty stations so I have no way of knowing if he ever got a steamer. As far as a CSX line, there is a line a few miles south of the Air Force Base that runs East/West. It is an old Seaboard line, and I remember counting between 10 and 15 trains a day on it. If you take route 261 south from route 378 about 5 or 6 miles, you will cross it at a town called Wedgefield. Turn left on I believe route 763 immediately after crossing the track, this will follow the rail line most of the way into Sumter. There is a small yard in Sumter, and the CSX used to keep a MOW train there alot with one of the 'pumkin' orange paint jobs. The yard is in kind of a run down part of town, but there used to be some good photo spots there. Also, there is a line that split off at Sumter and continued south through Pinewood. In Pinewood, there was an old station that a local community group was restoring. I can't honestly say that I have ever seen a train on this line, but the rails were always shiney, and the station in Pinewood was getting neat.