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Norfolk Southern to demolish North Carolina roundhouse
Sad. Does Trains have any file photos of the roundhouse to show us?
Well, I suppose the building has not been kept up very well, But as a visitor several times, I still hate to see the roundhouse be torn down. Think the only photos I have just had the roundhouse in the background.
And another one’s going , another one’s going to be gone. Buildings, yards, terminals, coal tipples, etc. that were plentiful when I hired in 1968 are unfortunately disappearing just like the people I have worked with and for. I’m just glad I got to participate in railroading for my career during the years I did.
That’s a crying shame that N S can’t find some way to keep the Asheville Roundhouse for some kind of historic western N C railroad museum of some related interest, After all the roundhouse has withstood many many floods in that area, but I guess progress is progress of some sort of necessity.
I think the 630 spent its last years in Southern Railway service on the Transylvania Railroad from Hendersonville to Rosman. It was then removed from the Brevard line and went to the ET&WNC at Johnson City. Perhaps it earlier shifted from the Murphy Branch to the Transylvania and then went to the ET&WNC. There are quite a few photos of the 630 in service at Brevard and along the line. One is on Page 209 of Logging Railroads of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, Volume 1.
The Transylvania is relatively flat compared to the steep grades at Waynesville to Sylva and from Nantahala up to Topton.
The entire history of the Transylvania RR is in the Transylvania County Genealogical Societies second volume on the county history, along with the stories of Carr Lumber, Shaffer Lumber, Gloucester Lumber and Moltz Lumber that climbed up from Lake Toxaway to the crest at Cold Mountain and logged in the headwaters of the Tuckaseegee River in Jackson County, a difficult area to explore even today.
Carr Lumber went high up toward the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the “Cradle of Forestry” is on the old line to the Pink Beds. Shaffer ran from Rosman to near the South Carolina line nearly reaching the Applachian Railroad out of Pickens. Gloucester climbed up from Rosman to the falls at the Devil’s Courthouse on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Tom Fetters
A picture would be nice!
There are pictures at http://www.pwrr.org/nstation/asheville.html
It’s a shame that one more roundhouse is about to bite the dust. The city of Asheville is trying to stop the demolition but I fear that the “die is cast”. Here’s a link to a lengthy article about the situation in the Asheville Citizen-Times - http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2014/10/20/ashevilles-roundhouse-matters-many/17628897/ Maybe a miracle will happen…