Hey Ya’ll
When I was in the 1st Grade, my grandpa gave ,e the best gift ever. A life size steam tank engine grill. It was painted black, and a few weeks later, we painted the wheels and snow plow red, and the hand rails gold. He even put on a working gold bell, the came a week after we picked up the train at a grill nuilders, a few milses away from the Carolina Southern Railroad tracks in Chadborn North Carolina. Every Year since then. We have made a trip to FairBluff and Cadbourn to see the Trains and the man who built mine.
Well, my dream has come true. We are going to build a boiler and other things. We have bought a wistle to put on the roof. It works with out steam. It is loud too. When we are finished with the enigne we plan to build a tender, 2 coaches (Coach and a Diner), and a wooden red caboose. We have arranged to have it run the entire llenght of the Carolina Southern (A short line starts in my towm Myrtle Beach and branches off in two directions in Chadbourn. One way to Mullins and one to Wilmington. We will have thw whole shabang. Red Lanterns, Decor in the cars as well as carpet. Full iteirior for the caboose and coaches, and Railroad decor in the cars.
We plan to paint it as the Black Maria. That was the first locomotive to get to Myrtle Beach. Before the Atlantic Coast Line Bught the line in 1912, it was split in two. One railroad, the Conway and Seashore Railway ran from Conway to
Myrtle Beach. The other railroad Conway Chabourn, and Something? ran the rest of the line.
The Black Maria pulled 2 coaches and a caboose into Myrtle Beach on the inurgural run. Then afetr the Atlantic Coast Line Bought it, they too the whole line. The it was split in 2 again after the Altantic Coast Line Left, The Waccamaw Coast Line was formed and some other short line took over the other portion.
Then Mr. Pippen bought up both lines and formed the Carolina and Southern Railroad, though the myrtle Beach Branch eluded his grasp until July 2000,