Here’s a picture I snapped last Thursday of the current condition of the tracks about 3/4 of a mile west of Saluda, N.C., just out of Polk County and into Henderson. For those of you not aware of kudzu (Pueraria lobata) it is a vine native to China and Japan that was unfortunately brought here for use as a ground cover (and it does just that, swallowing everything in it’s path, entire trees even, at up to 1 foot per day!) and has practically taken over the south and Norfolk Southern’s tracks. Notice the rust on the rails too.
As for the status of Saluda (this is for Modelcar and everyone else of course), all of the rails are intact but have been cut farther south just past Landrum, S.C. and west of Saluda. This way NS doesn’t have to maintain the track in between. The crossing gate arms have been removed and the bulbs taken from the signal towers and warning lights at the grades covered with what appears to be something like a gray bag. I’ll try to get some more pictures up later.
Will trains run over Saluda again? I can only say this; it’s costing NS a lot more money and a lot more time than they had originally thought to re-route around Saluda. And we know how capitalistic corporations are in America, right? Keep your eyes open. [;)]
Thanks for keeping us posted.RJ Corman took a branch line off the former NKP restored it and has factories now loading on it. Great to see old track being used again.
stay safe
Joe
…BRF: Thanks for sharing and updating us on Saluda…I hadn’t thought of an onslaught of the “Kudzu”…taking over the RoW…! I am familiar with how that stuff grows and covers whole areas of anything…It can cover a whole area of forest and underbrush like a blanket with ease…so thick a man could hardly penetrate it…What a shame it is encroaching on the rail RoW…It won’t take long to cover clear across the RoW as depicted in your photo…
I imagine these last few years the little town of Saluda has noticed a reducion of people stopping in to observe the unusual railroad situation through there…That is what brought me back in there to visit. Doing so we had lunch and stopped in at the M. A. Pace general store and bought several things…even had Mr. Pace send us some of his salad dressing, and just this week I gave his address to our neighbor friends as they wanted to contact him and see if it was still available.
I understand how difficult the operation of rail traffic up and down that area was and suppose one can’t blame NS for wanting to leave it if possible, but as BRF relates in his above post the cost to do so may be even higher than using Saluda. I understand extreme safety practices were in place in the most recent times it was being utilized and evidently was being negotiated safely…even if it required the train to possibly double or even triple the “hill”…
BRF, do you happen to know if Mr. Pace of the General Store is still living…? March of 2001 was the last visit we made there.
Saluda has been a special railroad story for many years and it is just hard to believe it possibly has passed on into history. Would be nice [for us railroad fans], if it hasn’t. Time will tell. Foot note: For fans unfamiliar with all of the above, look in Google and find a reprinted article from 1984 TRAINS depicting the rail operation on the “hill” including a generous supply of photos.
Modelcar: There’s as many tourists if not more in Saluda now, though I doubt they’re there to see the grade crest in town, they probably learn of it only after they arrive. The general store is still open and as far as I know he’s still living, I haven’t heard otherwise. I don’t know how much time he spends in the store now though, haven’t been along the street there for awhile, just driving through town to get some Green River BBQ (mmm, mmm good) or taking the scenic route to Hendersonville instead of I-26 filled with lowlanders who don’t know what it’s like to drive on a hill and a curve at the same time. Also get to follow the rails that way too, whether they’re rusted or not!
It’s sad to see Saluda with rusty rails and kudzu taking over the ROW.[:(]I rode over Saluda behind N&W 611 in 1992.Diesels took most of the train up the grade and 611 brought up 5 cars.It was totally awesome.With it costing more,and taking longer than expected, maybe we will see trains on the grade once again.The grade was closed once before, and then reopened.it can happen again!
P.S. I thought I saw the kudzu growing across the tracks in the photo![;)]
Having spent my life in northern cities, I hardly knew about kudzu in the US. In Japan kuzu (Japanese spelling) is thought of as an ornamental herbal plant and is not easy to raise on a scale to make it economic to plant as an agricultural product. It’s also a source of high-end starch. I’ve heard it makes a delicious batter for fried chicken. Here’s the odd part: I have go to the local Japanese store to buy kuzu flour for tempura batter, it’s imported from Japan and costs $12 for 5 oz.
I rode up Saluda in October of 1994. Different view of things than I was used to. Unfortunately I was pulled up behind diesel power instead of N&W 611 from Melrose, but it was still a great experience anyway. Is 611 still at the Virginia transportation museum in Roanoke? I saw it there in the summer of '99 and I assume that it’s still there and in good shape.
Check the Virginia museum of Transportation web site.The 1218 is beside her now and they have opened the O Winston Link wing too.I do wi***hey(ns) would let her back out to run again[:(]
stay safe
joe
She does need to be taken off of her leash. Was Norfolk Southern making any profit off of those excursions? Or at least breaking even? I know that the tickets were fairly expensive if I remember right, my mom was in charge of that though[;)]. It couldn’t be cheap to maintain a steam engine though. Just curious.
…That would have been a ride to remember…up Saluda with 611 or 1218…Both of them were here in Muncie. 611 many times. Miss those trips. She would stay for about 3 or 4 hours so we really had a good time looking it over and then experience what it sounded like as it pulled it’s almost 20 car train out…Have some great pic’s. of it doing that.
There’s a siding about 2 miles long through Saluda and to the west so they could assemble the train as it was brought up in pieces. Only 16 gondolas of woodchips could be brought up at a time behind 3 Dash-9s and the trains could be longer than 50 cars at times.
I remember that there was a big “uproar” when they decided to end the 611 excursions. I rallied up my second grade class at the time and wrote a letter to David Goode, CEO of Norfolk Southern, to try to convince them to continue the excursions. I guess we weren’t cute enough to convince him to let 611 keep on hauling. At least we tried.
…Yea, that was too bad 611 was taken out of the special service as it was being used…Perhaps we’ll not see it running out on excursions again, maybe never. 1218 was in Muncie here once and maybe it passed through once again but I missed out on it each time…I really wanted to see that one. I used to see similar sized engines many years ago hauling coal out of the area of Pennsylania we called home…Southwestern area and that one reminded me of that…
Kudzu is a trip!!!
Back in the 1980’s we rode behind 1218 Alexandria-Lynchburg on an excursion, Two things stand out in memory:
how speedy an articulated can be and kudzu.
Somewhere south of Orange or Charlottesville the kudzu began. and folks it was strange. Sort of like being dropped into a Felix the Cat cartoon or a fi***ank. The stuff blanketed everything in sight. You could pick out abandoned and kudzu-ed farm buildings now and then amidst the trees it was depriving of photosynthesis. Kudzu wallpaper!!!
For miles there was nothing but blue sky and green kudzu.
I believe the plant was brought here to feed hogs down south as well as for ornamental purposes. Legend has it that Southern Railway trainmen were forbidden to pee on the right of way lest it encourage the encroaching vine. The Southern kept a weedless roadbed through there.
Didn’t know you ranged as far south as Saluda Modelcar, Thanks for sharing.
…Rix, I try to hit it all when I’m near something of rail importance…We stopped at Saluda [off I-26], by just 2 miles, several times on way back from Florida in the Spring. I had been fascinated of that location for years…after reading of it, etc…So, being that close to it as we traveled, I had to look…and tried to see the action for several years but never lucked out to do so…The tracks were bare every time we stopped. But I’m still happy I had a chance to stand there in town and look down that grade and try to make make myself believe, yes…that really is a railroad dropping down at that angle.