Raleigh Railroading
CSX operated General Motors Type SD60
As is evident by the photos sometimes posted here, train spotting is a hobby of mine. Part of this is from hearing family stories when I was younger. My grandfather on my mom’s side spent years seeing the country by hopping boxcars. It was by train hopping that he wound up in Washington state to join the CC Camp before heading off to World War II. My mom’s grandfather was a conductor as well.
above image credit: uliveandyouburn
My dad’s pop was the conductor of “The General“, part of the L&N line (later CSX). During The Civil War, The General was involved in Andrews Raid–which eventually became known as The Great Locomotive Chase. It was later restored as an oil burner for the Civil War Centennial. He’s in a photo on the linked page, as well as my grandmother. He later was the conductor of the Hummingbird. Unfortunately, I never got to know him or my grandfather and great-grandfather from my mom’s side of the family.
Although family history plays some part in my interest in trains, a good part of it lies in the experience of simply watching one go by. The loud roar (or screeching) of metal train wheels on the rails, the highly efficient humming diesel engine, and the overpowering (and often startling) horn is just a humbling experience. It’s also a throwback to the past, as locomotive transportation is what enabled the United States to expand westward during the 1800s. Many times when I’ve sat watching them go by, I’ve pondered what it would be like to hop on one without knowing where it was going–just to wind up in a new place and see the way there in a new way.
Amtrak operated GM F95PHI near the former West Martin Street Viaduct.
Having two dogs and having a full time job (not to mention keeping up with this site) makes that just a dream, though. Instead, I’m often hanging out near the Boylan Wye, the Amtrak Station, or other various lookout points taking pictures and wishing I could spend a month riding rails aimlessly.
And speaking of the Amtrak Station, it’s one of the busiest along the NY to Miami corridor. I have yet to have seen it, but I hear you can occasionally see a private railcar attached to the end of the passenger cars.
Another angle of the GM SD60s near the CSX Turntable close to Seaboard Station
It isn’t hard to find relics of Raleigh’s Railroad History. According to Will, the turntable partially visible in the image above has been there since the days of steam engines. He goes on to say that:
There was a brick roundhouse where the engines were serviced, and a water tank and a coaling station used to refuel the steam locomotives. You can still see the concrete strips radiating out from the turntable which supported the tracks leading to each roundhouse stall.
It also isn’t hard to find great vantage points to watch trains in downtown Raleigh. They are always slow moving at the crossing with West Hargett Street. It was here uliveandyouburn and I decided to make a quick hop off in front of a crowd of club kids leaving Five Star. Hanging on to the side ladder of a grain car is no way to travel at high speeds!
Such a small stop sign for such a large engine
To read a great train hopping story, visit uliveandyouburn’s blog to read about winding up in an unknown town and having to ask a store clerk where you are.
above image of the CSX yard credit of: uliveandyouburn
Stay tuned, as there is more Raleigh Railroading history in store to come from Raleigh Boy!
above image of a lost caboose credit of uliveandyouburn
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS feed
Subscribe to posts by Email
Sign up for the Newsletter
01/23/2009
Great post + pics! Although I’ve never ventured beyond railyard hopping, I have traveled cross-country to San Francisco by passenger train. It took five days and was an awesome trip…I highly recommend it! Have made the Raleigh to New York (and beyond) trip through the northeast industrial corridor many, many times. On the most recent trip I took photos of the abandoned factories along the way.
01/23/2009
That picture of the CSX unit is great, the blue and gold just pops.
If you ever have a couple week days free we can do the Raleigh-Hamlet-Raleigh trip, it takes two week days, saturdays and sundays can be unreliable. Also there is a way to do it one long day from Raleigh to Greensboro and back.
01/23/2009
I took a train to NYC (the Carolinian) last summer that was hauling a private rail car. It was a restored car probably from the 20s, with a panoramic glass domed roof. Two men were waiting at the end of the platform to say hello to whomever was riding in that car, but they did not board. A very civilized way to travel for those with both money and time.
01/23/2009
Nice pics.
My backyard abuts the old Raleigh and Gaston Railroad line – one of the two oldest RRs in the state. Its terminus was at the roundhouse in your picture. There’s a historical marker about it on N. Wilmington Street. The track comes north from downtown east of Capitol and crosses Whitaker Mill, Hodges, and Six Forks, parallelling Atlantic Avenue out of town towards Forestville and Wake Forest.
The track is still used, but not for anything very substantial. Every now and then we’ll get a long freight train rumbling by at a low rate of speed, but mostly just an engine or two and a few cars being hauled somewhere locally.
On cold snowy nights – like we’ve just had – I can look out my back door up towards the track and pretend I’m in the mountains, not inside the beltline 3 minutes from downtown Raleigh. A passing train, blowing its horn as it approaches Whitaker Mill, only adds to the effect.
01/23/2009
From http://www.ncmarkers.com:
Throughout eastern North Carolina in the1840s, the sound of a locomotive horn was heard, signifying the arrival of trains—and a new era of unprecedented prosperity. The promise of rail transportation, which was conceived and cultivated through the Experimental Railroad in 1835, led to the funding of North Carolina’s first self-propelled railroad, the Raleigh and Gaston line. Gaston in Halifax County was its northern terminus and Raleigh its southern end point.
Soon after the success of the Experimental Railroad, engineers in Virginia laid down track from Weldon, North Carolina, to Petersburg, Virginia. The line provided access to rails running along the east coast. Wake County residents and businessmen raised construction funds for a railroad in early 1836, with assurances from their counterparts in Petersburg (who would also benefit from the new rail) to contribute likewise. Slaves were leased to lay the rail on heavy wooden planks. Setbacks with financing and materials delayed the railroad’s completion until March 21, 1840. A week later, the Raleigh depot, at the corner of Salisbury and Halifax streets, received twenty bales of cotton from Petersburg, the line’s first commercial shipment on record.
The benefits of the Raleigh and Gaston line were apparent immediately. Soon after the line’s debut, local coaches began transporting goods to and from the main depot downtown. Other forms of transportation, such as steamboats and stagecoaches, would accommodate the trains’ arrival and departure times in their own schedules. The train allowed for quick transportation of goods, and also provided jobs for locals in Raleigh, as the Raleigh and Gaston line was widely known to “to give employment to native Southerners, in preference to reckless adventurers, either from the North or elsewhere.†Raleigh welcomed the promise of the iron horse with a three-day celebration heralded with cannons.
The Confederacy used the Raleigh and Gaston heavily towards the end of the Civil War, but years of contributing to the failed war effort took its toll on the Raleigh economy. In later years, other rails were laid, and in 1967, the Raleigh and Gaston line was incorporated into the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. The Seaboard Office Building, constructed in 1861, today stands on Salisbury Street in Raleigh, having been relocated to that site in the 1970s from the junction of Salisbury and Halifax streets. The original site today is occupied by an underground parking deck.
References:
Elizabeth Reid Murray, Wake: Capital County of North Carolina, Vol. I: Prehistory Through Centennial (1983)
William S. Powell, ed., Encyclopedia of North Carolina, 937-941—essay by Douglas Wait and John Detreville
Scott Reynolds Nelson, Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Klan Violence, and Reconstruction (1999)
“Raleigh and Gaston Railroads†at Confederate Railroads website:
http://www.csa-railroads.com/Raleigh%20&%20Gaston.htm
This write-up omits that there was a head-on collision between a passenger train and a gravel train just south of Wake Forest at Forestville during the Civil War. Several people were killed, including one man who, with his daughter-in-law, was bringing home the body of his son who had been killed in the war.
01/30/2009
RB – beyond the short yard to yard or the brief ladder ride, I have yet to go any amount of distance. I hope to in the near future.
uliveandyouburn – I’m definitely interested in the Hamlet trip, although if camping, it may prove handy to wait until the weather warms. Greensboro sounds great. Is that all week?
NCSU – thanks for the historical information on the marker. I plan to cover it in a future post.
Ken – that’s the first I’ve heard of a car with a glass domed roof, and a private one to boot! thanks for the story, I’m now curious as to how many of them there are.
01/30/2009
About glass domed raliroad cars: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_car In my cross-country railroad trip mentioned above, the Chicago-San Francisco leg of the journey was via Union Pacific RR. (This was before the days of Amtrak.) At the Denver Station, a glass-domed car was attached to the middle of the train. I ventured up there and was astonished at what I found! The whole top part of the car was glass-enclosed and was situated in a separate space above what could only be called an elegant, old fashioned club car. You had to climb a circular stair to get to the glass domed seating area. I rode out most of the rest of my trip up there. Passing through the Sierra Nevada was a stunning visual experience I’ll never forget!
04/09/2009
The caboose pic reminds me, there were 3 to 4 old cabooses on the rail that can be seen from Capital Blvd. near downtown Did anyone happen to get a picture?
03/06/2011
That first picture is amazing! What camera do you use?