(NS) Southern Railways Melrose hill in Melrose,NC.

[Anonymous]

When was the last time a Train ran on this line? Is it up for Abandonment? Will it ever be used again?
Why was it Abandoned? Thanks.

[dekemd]

The hill at Melrose is the Saluda Grade.  It has not seen a train in several years.  It is not abandoned but rail-banked.  There was a tread on it a couple of months ago.  Do a search on Saluda and you should find it.

[Modelcar]

....Saluda roughly saw commerical traffic back in the area of 2001...Reasons I've understood was it was more economical to use other routes now with the flow of traffic currently.

It is railbanked and out of service since then.  Actual rails removed at places leading to Saluda.  Not long lengths of rail just single rail at certain locations.  Intersection warning lights are turned off and the rail line is totally dormant.

Last word I've heard it is not up for abandonment at this time.

As stated above we had a rather extensive conversation on it several months ago on here...Enter in Search: "Saluda Hill" and you should find all kinds of posts about it.