To the North Carolina Transportation Museum

Continuing our (very) quick pass through railroad-related sites during our recent trip down south . . .

We first stayed a few days with my brother who lives near Cornelius and Davidson, NC and during one of my morning runs I decided to see if I could find the local railroad station.

Not certain, but I think this may be the (heavily remuddled) station at Cornelius, NC. At least the roof looks railroady enough.

Fortunately, the depot at Davidson, NC is much more obvious . . .

The station - excuse me, "Depot" - at Davidson, NC

Davidson, NC trackside

Close-up of bay window and order board.

I'd missed the "Streamliners at Spencer" event last year (despite the fact that our very own New Haven FL-9 #2019 made the trip), but discovering that Spencer, NC and the North Carolina Transportation Museum were only about an hour away from my brother's house, I figured a visit was a no-brainer. Fortunately, bro' and dad agreed and went with me.

The museum is on the site of the former Spencer Shops of the Southern Railway. Though much has changed since the shops were active (there are a LOT fewer tracks & yards), much remains - including the HUGE backshop, turntable and 37-stall roundhouse. It's an active rail preservation facility even today, which isn't surprising given the great facilities that exist here. Click here for a brief history of the shops.

There is a TRAINLOAD of stuff to see (pun intended) and I took a lot of photos, but here are a few that'll give you a quick overview of what's there...

You start your visit at the station, which was transplanted from Barber, NC

Signal display - you can even operate them!

Like the museum at Roanoke, the NCTM is a full transportation museum - so it includes an impressive collection of cars and trucks as well (which my dad and brother especially enjoyed).

Need something like this on my layout - HO scale, of course.

Overview of the car museum, in the old freighthouse.

Spencer Backshop - this photo doesn't do it justice. It's HUGE! I think I read somewhere that at one time it was the largest building in North Carolina.

Shop interior - this is just one half(!) It's not hard to imagine the huge cranes moving entire locomotives around here.

Next stop was the roundhouse which included a number of locomotives and cars (don't miss the film at the beginning of your tour of the roundhouse - it gives you a great overview of the operation as it used to be).

For the blog's obligatory model railroad content.... this is a scale reproduction of the Spencer Shops. What an amazing operation!

View from the other end. Even in N-scale, this thing is huge.

Southern F unit undergoing restoration in the roundhouse.

You don't see too many of these around - looks like a Walthers or Tichy kit(!)

Overview of the roundhouse

I took over 100 photos during my visit (glad I didn't run out of "film" - heh) and didn't want to bore you by posting all of them. But hopefully this will give you enough of a taste of what's there. Like the VA Museum of Transportation - the NCTM is most definitely worth a visit!

But our railroad day wasn't quite over yet.... On the way home, we saw a sign on the highway for a railroad station in Salisbury, NC. So of course we had to make a little detour...

I want to learn more about Salisbury - it looks like it was quite a railroad town at one time and retains a lot of its old buildings - including these. "Embiggen" the pic to see the cool signs painted on the brickwork.

Built in 1908, the station itself is still active, serving both Amtrak and the local commuter service.

The NCTM was, of course, awesome - but I definitely want to visit Salisbury again. It wasn't until I got home that I discovered how many historic sites and buildings there are in town. And judging by all the vacant property near the tracks - not to mention the funny shaped buildings nearby - I can only imagine what railroad activity there must have been there during its heyday.

But there's still a bit of railroading going on - as you'll see in the videos below, with which I leave you for now . . .

Wordless Wednesday #86

New Haven K-1b entering "Mill Hollow" on the Air Line.

Bethlehem to Roanoke

As I mentioned yesterday, things have been pretty busy these past few weeks. Good News: lots of blog fodder; Bad News: no time to do blog posts. There's usually an inverse proportion of writing to topics to write about, and this blog is no exception. While these "trip" posts will be mostly for my own interest and a way of memorializing the railroad parts of my trip, you too may find some interesting things along the way. So, without further ado, let's head Way Down South....

Our first stop was Bethlehem, PA. I'd never been there before and had always just seen photos. Trust me - the photos don't do it justice. The steel-making industry was MASSIVE - even in its diminished and abandoned state. Very impressive infrastructure and a testament to our country's (one-time) industrial might.

We next stopped in Winchester, VA. I'd first heard of this town in conjunction with an old Railfan & Railroad article on the Winchester & Western (once famous for its roster of Alco RS-11s). I didn't have time to explore, and saw no trains here, but was able at least to find the station.

Finally, after HOURS AND HOURS of driving (who knew Virginia was SO large?!), we finally arrived at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. I was there for the trains (of course), but as a true transportation museum, all modes of transportation were included: Planes and automobiles, as well as trains (and even some space travel).

They even had a VERY large O-scale operating layout - this is just a portion of it, shot from the mezzanine.

And HERE is the main attraction - for me, anyway. Three Roanoke-built super steamers - Class A #1218, Class J #611, Class Y #2156. These things are MASSIVE - certainly not what I'm used to seeing in person given my experience on the Valley RR.

The 611 had been doing mainline excursions over the summer, but its fires had recently been dropped for the season. Thankfully, they were allowing folks up into the cab - where I got this shot of the engineer's side.

And here's the fireman's side - very different than what I'm used to. Those valves at the lower right, in the V formation, control the stoker and associated jets.

But the VMT isn't just about steam - there were some interesting diesel locos on display as well . . .

But of course steam was the obvious attraction, for me anyway.

New Haven "brick" painted for the Virginian Rwy (ok, this unit was originally VGN, but whatever).

As we were heading out, we saw this beast - Norfolk & Western 4-8-0 #1151, famous not only for its rare wheel arrangement, but for its use on the N&W's Abingdon Branch, made famous through the photography of O. Winston Link. I heard that this locomotive, retired for scrap in the summer of 1950, sat in that scrap line until rescued in the summer of 2009. An amazing survivor!

After seeing the 1151 and driving through town to get back to the highway, we looked to the right as we were going over the overpass and saw the Roanoke engine facility. That's the turntable and many large engines being worked on.

Panning just a bit to the left, you see the famous Roanoke Shops, still very active.

Before leaving town, I wanted to be sure to see the railroad station, but couldn't figure out where it was. The Missus, in her inimitable way, worked the Google on the internet machine and discovered that the station was - literally - just across the street. . .

Not quite what I was expecting, but I later learned that the more "typical" Virginia-type station of red brick and white columns was replaced in the late 1940s using a design by none other than Raymond Loewy, who was also responsible not only for designing the famous Pennsy RR GG-1, but a few New Haven engines as well (H-16-44 and DL-109, to mention a couple).

Alas, the station had just closed and we then discovered that there was a museum here too(!) Actually, two museums: O. Winston Link and Raymond Loewy both have extensive collections here.

With it getting quite late and still needing to travel to Davidson, NC, we got out of town, grabbed a quick bite, and continued our journey promising ourselves an-even-more-thorough visit on the way back.

Clearly, if you're a railroad buff and you have a chance to visit Roanoke, VA by all means do! I haven't even gotten into how many Norfolk Southern freight trains went by in the few hours I was there. So it has something for the modern-day railfan as well as the historian. Well worth the trip!

On the Valley Line Today - 77 Years Ago

As you may have guessed from my dearth of posts (not to mention my first-time-ever missing of a Wordless Wednesday), it's been a busy bunch of weeks here in Valley Local Land - but all good. We went Way Down South to visit my family and also got to visit some railroad museums(!). I'll have posts on Roanoke, Spencer, Nashville, and Chattanooga in the coming days. But first, I didn't want today to go by without commemorating a somber - and for the New Haven Railroad, a devastating - event that happened on this date in 1938 - The Great New England Hurricane.

This storm was - and remains - the most powerful and deadly to hit New England in at least 300 years. It killed an estimated 682 people, damaged or destroyed 57,000 homes and cost an estimated $4.7 billion in 2015 dollars. Even as late as 1951, you could still see damaged trees and buildings.

The New Haven's Shoreline route was especially hard-hit. . .

But the railroad - despite being in receivership after having gone into bankruptcy a few years earlier - restored its many washed-out lines in record time. The little booklet above tells the story:

"On September 21st, 1938, with flood waters already threatening major washouts at important points along the New Haven Railroad where the tracks paralleled or crossed the swollen torrents of New England's rivers...suddenly, just before dark, in the teeth of a howling southwest gale which increased momentarily to hurricane proportions, a steadily rising tide which in some places rose twenty feet in as many minutes, swept inland along the New England coast-line across the Shore Line Route of the New Haven Railroad...carrying on its crest hundreds of boats, ships, cottages, buildings, and wreckage. Communications by rail, wire, and telephone with many devastated areas was completely cut off. No one realized as yet what a staggering blow had been dealt by this combined hurricane - tidal wave - flood throughout the length and breadth of southern New England. But the next morning revealed a grim picture of death and desolation. Where fast freights and through passenger trains, including the crack Shore Line Limiteds had sped in rapid succession between New York and New England points carrying passengers, mail, express, and the vital necessities of life...now miles of silent track hung at crazy angles over yawning chasms in a hopeless tangle of power lines, signal towers, houses, boats, and thousands of tons of debris. Further inland at Hartford, Springfield, Norwich, Willimantic, and Putnam the hurricane had left its toll of felled trees and communication systems, crumbled freight sheds and roofless factories...and to add to the chaos, the raging rivers from the north broke through dams and temporary dikes, washing out railroad bridges and miles of track...rendering useless the strategic points through which Shore Line trains might have been re-routed. The vital life-line between New England and points south and west had been effectually severed. It had to be restored without delay. Thousands of men were needed for the Herculean task of rebuilding a railroad. The summoning of trackmen, engineers, skilled repair crews, and laborers had to be carried out without the help of modern communications systems. In an incredibly short time an army of 5,000 men were at work...toiling 24 hours a day in 3 shifts...many of them eating and sleeping in work trains and Pullman cars on the job..."

For more photos, be sure to check out the NHRHTA's 60th Anniversary coverage here and for more detailed information on the hurricane itself, check out this site.

Those of us living in New England a few years back went through "Superstorm Sandy" and got a taste of what The Great New England Hurricane might have been like. But, as it turns out, it was a pretty small taste - as bad as Sandy was, it didn't come anywhere close. Check out this site for an eye-opening comparison of the two storms.

There are fewer and fewer folks that have first-hand memories of that fateful day 77 years ago, but thanks to the extensive coverage the storm received - not to mention the wonders of the internet that allow all that coverage to be easily saved and shared - the heroic efforts of the employees of the New Haven Railroad, including those on the Valley Line and most especially along the Shore Line, will never be forgotten.

Wordless Wednesday #85

Me and dad at the TVRM last week.

Wordless Wednesday #84

Fixing the West End Loop

You may recall that I made the mistake of cutting electrical gaps on a curve. With a temporary fix of reinforcing spikes, the resulting kink ended up ok for the open house - no derailments - but now that I'm getting close to covering over that west end loop with a 2nd level of track and scenery, it's time to do a permanent fix.

Here's how things looked:

Even with reinforcing spikes/nails, it ain't pretty

And it looked even worse when I removed the spikes/nails. Clearly, the rails were under quite a bit of tension.

As is often the case, ruminating about what to do - or, worse, doing something quick hoping it'll be permanent - usually takes more time than just doing the job right. I'd considered just soldering the rails in place - filling the gaps with solder and smoothing things out. Or at least doing the best I could.

But while things are still at this stage, I quickly concluded that I should just rip this out and start over. There's no ballast, no scenery, and the track isn't even glued down - it's just nailed. So removal wouldn't be that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

Lesson learned: don't be afraid to redo something if it needs to be redone. And the sooner you do it, the sooner it's (re)done!

The first thing I needed to do to get started was detach the feeders. Fortunately, I've recently changed my process of connecting feeders to bus wires - using 18ga pigtails IDC'd to the bus, and wire-nutted to the 20ga feeders. Thus:

While it would have been easy enough to cut the feeders from the bus, I'd have to reattach them using additional IDCs. This way, I only have to twist off to disconnect and twist back on to reconnect.

 Once the feeders were disconnected, untwisted, and hanging down loosely....

I could easily lift the track (well, once I removed the track nails).

You can see here the result of straightening out the curve - the inside rail is much shorter. No problem, since I wanted to install a new piece of flextrack, I just needed to snip the rails even. It's important to solder flextrack together straight and then curve it. Makes for a smoother curve. Don't try to solder on the curve - you'll probably kink.

Once the new flextrack was added, I needed to solder it nice and level. As you can see, the track hanging out in midair would droop too much, so I supported it with some cardstock and a yardstick.

Once you solder the track together, nail it in place and repeat the process until you get around the curve. Or, as in my case, you get near a turnout that's already installed and you need to figure out a good - and kink-free - way of attaching everything.

So the above pic is where things stand until I figure out how best to reattach to the turnout. And good thing I stopped at this point - I'd forgotten I wanted to add a turnout to the curve in order to branch off into another small staging yard. But it turns out a #6 won't just drop in easily on a 24" radius curve, so I'll need to give this some more thought before proceeding.

No worries though - fixing that kink was a must-do anyway and the swing music playing on the iPad helped set the proper mood, making for a very enjoyable & relaxing way to spend the evening. And isn't that what this hobby is supposed to be about?