Mr. Warren just recently passed away. R.I.P. Melvin, you are a legend.

Rest in peace Melvin Warren. You will be missed.

I had a family member who worked for the Southern Railway during the flood of 1916 and he saved a passenger train by sending it up the runaway track near Saluda. The engineer wasn’t very happy that he sent his train up that runaway track, but he told him that the bridge at Melrose was washed out and he just saved his life and the lives of the passengers.

I was looking at the route on Google Maps midway through this video and found that the building at 19:48 is labeled as "Melvin Warren's Office". Rated 4 stars with 3 reviews!🤣

I’ve got a pre-abandonment timetable with this mainline still in it. No less than five pages were devoted solely to detailed instructions on how to run trains up/down Saluda. It was an absolute nightmare. Sadly, that was the very reason it had to be abandoned. I’m still amazed it lasted as long as it did.

My great grandfather Weston Pace worked as a switch man on the grade from the 20s to the 50s. Back then you sat in a switch house and the tracks stayed on the run away spur until the train signaled all was good and then it was switched to the main line. He walked 5 miles one way to the switch house. His wife Fanny Mae Pace once saved a train by running up the grade and flagging it down after discovering a rock slide on the tracks while taking him lunch.

You know it's the 80s when the electronic fanfare starts playing lol

MAN I love the 80s safety music.

Back when people cared about their jobs and took pride in their work. That was probably some if the best radio operating I've heard.

There was a very in-depth article in TRAINS Magazine many years ago devoted to Saluda. It was written by an engineer fireman who worked tje territory. The safety tracks were the suggestion of an engineer named Pit Ballew who survived a horrific runaway

I was there in the late 2000's. The rails were quite rusty, hadn't seen trains in many years. Looking down the tracks at Saluida and up the tracks at Melrose gives a sense of the very steep grade of this line, nothing like I have seen before.

Pete Widner is the General Foreman electrical geru that came up with the Saluda Mtn. Switch project. I installed many of the projects. It kept the PC pressure switch from cutting out Dynamic Brake. THANKS FOR POSTING this documentary. It brought back memories. I was never on one of the runs but I worked on those locomotives like they were my own kids.

"Last fatality was in the 1940's." Try getting a corporate lawyer to give you the ok on mentioning something like that nowadays

Always use your Special Saluda Key.

being from the area, its crazy to see how much the railroad really drove saluda. it once was a bustling little town. now, its a sad shell of what it used to be. hanging on to the hopes that one day the trains will return...

I want - no, i NEED more videos like this

All of you thumbs down haters,this man was running trains before you were born.

Now that's what I call "Wet-Your-Britches" Track Profile! A great big salute to the old Southern Railway and it's train crews!

Testament to the teamwork that keeps a railroad running every day.

Born and raised in a Southern Railway family. My Grandfather was a switch man at Norris Yard in Birmingham for 30 years. SR for ever!

Train engineer sounds like Jerry Reed when he talks over the radio👍🏻true Southern Railway

I didn't realize how much work they do. Very cool video.

What a great video. I live in Saluda, and remember going to main street back in the 90's as a kid to watch the trains. Fond memories.

R.I.P. Melvin Warren.

I love these old videos. I wish i was rail Fanning when the grade was active. The old Richmond & Virginia Airline track ran behind my house in Greenville, South Carolina. It was used for the concrete plant when i was a kid.

RIP to the Great Melvin Warren

I watched one of the last trains go west to east over Saluda. I talked with the engineer awhile, as the conductor was walking for retaining valves. Very interesting...

Who’s here after buying this route in train simulator and flipping an SD18 off the side of a cliff. I know I am. This video is very helpful. Especially for the southern railway retro pack.

I'm a die hard southern fan!! The main line that runs from Washington to Atlanta ran through where I grew up at dryfork va at the 223 milepost. I worked for my cousin who was a contractor to ns when I started helping him. Loved these old high hoods, and love the paint and markings on these locomotives!! Southern railway was a very strong railroad for the territory it covered!! Mygreat uncle was a detective for southern railway. He was stationed out of Knoxville Tennessee. Worked for them from 41 to 79 his name was Vernon Jones.

Love the EMD 645 turbo in idle.

Great video! Railroading is at its best with a crew of pros like these guys.

I learned so much. I was just in saluda and saw the dead tracks. I wondered about the history.

The Belmont road foreman looks like a worried William Shatner.

As someone who regularily operates trains on 2 to 3% grades, it's not any easier now.

Neat video!!! Lots of thought and procedure went into getting down the mountain safely!!! It is interesting to see the “Southern” high walkway lights on the locomotives too!

The North Carolibna Blue Ridge Mountains, home to the steepest mainline railroad grade and home to 3 of the scariest stretches of rural interstate freeways in America I-26 near Saluda Mountain, I-40 in the Gorge and I-40 along Black Mountain Grade!!! God Bless the North Carolina Blue Ridge/Smokey Mountain region! Take it slow, Ten-Foer!!!!

I would really love to see the track restored and at the very least some excursions Saluda must not be forgotten and it must preserved!!!

My parents live in Hedersonville just north of this. I remember when these tracks were in service.

Brilliant.. Presentation, thank you for your time and Presentation ❤️

The Asheville area is just a shell of what it one was. There were hundreds of employees that were stationed there now there are only about 30.

This is freaking awesome to watch!

Put together during a time when America was a place where taking pride in a well done job didn't make you an anomaly. Such professionals!

I truly have to say I had no idea untill I saw this video what it takes and what it took back in the days of no dynamic braking. My palms are sweaty just watching these southern gentlemen working that heavy drag.

Sadly, the line was mothballed in 2001. As far as why, you really have to understand how deadly this line was. I don't have the exact numbers handy at the moment, but until they installed the run away tracks, this was the deadliest stretch of road in North America. This thing has killed a lot of people and injured many more. It requires your complete and undivided attention.

The road Forman Melvin reminds me of Buford Pusser in the movie Walking Tall.

Wow what a great video inside the workings of the railroad itself! Thanks for sharing this.

That looks a lot like an old Clinchfield Route. We (my grandaddy HD Cheek was chief dispatcher till 55) ran into Ohio from Spartanburg through Erwin Tn.where the shops were located. And THAT was some railroad building !!!

RIP Melvin Warren, September 21, 1941 ~ February 5, 2023

Pretty neat seeing the Saluda depot in its original location. Can't wait to get back there for another visit.

I love this video. Fascinating to see how this worked in detail.

Notice the lead unit running long hood forward, in good old N&W fashion.

That music sounds oh-so-Mainstream 80's!

Imagine the surveying entailed in that prep for cutting that road !!!!

This is awesome! Was just at this very spot a few weeks ago

Late to the party(this upload is 4 yrs old by now), but this is impressive. 5% grade?! Crazy stuff and nerves of steel. I was nervous with sweaty palms just watching this. I find it funny that Southerners are sometimes stereotyped as dim-witted, but Southern RR tested and proved many of the innovations we see in modern railroading. One innovation in particular being the radio remote helpers(you can see a radio receiver car at 14:52) I was lucky enough to grow up in California where I witnessed a comparable battle with Tehachipi Pass , where the Southern Pacific was another innovator in tech(microwave communication, computer data systems and simulation, etc) and train handling practices. The railroad industry was truly groundbreaking in technology and actually contributed to a lot of what we take for granted today. Amazing stuff indeed.

What an amazing and challenging operation! Very nice!!!

...Melvin Warren is my hero...takes a railroad man of the highest caliber to get unit coal down that grade...

That railroad passes within less that 2/10 of a mile from my home in Inman, SC. The line north of here is rarely used, since the Saluda grade isn't in use any more. I've been up and down US 176 and I-26 past Saluda Mountain. 176 is hairpin turns between Tryon and Saluda. I-26 has a couple steep grades passing Saluda.

Yeah, easy as pie. You can even do it in a nice dress shirt and tie and you won't even get your hair mussed. Video shot in good weather w/dry rail. Try this in rain, sleet, snow, or Fall leaves when the rails are as slick as ice. Or, lose one unit, one dynamic brake, have broken knuckle, or get stuck w/a bad-braking train and see how easy it is. NS closed it down 14 years ago primarily because of cost, narrow operating/safety margins, and the availability of less costly, less dangerous alternatives.

Hey there!!!! I seen the southern railway film saluda grade so many times before the smart tv but hey I love the 80's promotional film it is so vintage with music and people sound southern accent y'all! It's unbelievable.

I work for NS in the Asheville area. Even though the Saluda mountain has been reviewed for re-opening, all indications point to it WILL NOT be reopened. It woiuld be a huge boost to our (Asheville's) train count and morale. I'm not holding my breath.

A very interesting video, really enjoyed!

when they were running dash 9's on this thing, they thought they could just run a train up the mountain without having to split it. That didn't work out like they thought it would. Down the hill, they ran about the same.

Anyone else watching in 2018?

Go Big Green! I love this video. My Grandfather was switch man at Norris Yard for 35-years!

That video is awsome, love it!

I love those old units

very good takes a great skill to operate a train over this grade. We did visit Saluda and grade did not too bad at Summit, but seeing this and reading articles and pictures or runaways and wrecks told a different story

really great inside look at how trains once ran over the grade, thanks for posting.

Great video!!!! Thanks for posting!!!

That SD45 sounds good idling. And love the country accent of all peoples…..

It took me a minute to understand that computer graphic! This video is, literally, LIFE!

RIP SALUDA GRADE 😢

This is a great video! Thanks!

Im sure that dude loved getting on the lead loco while the horn was going full blast

I bought the saluda dlc for train simulator. This video actually helped me...

A very good video of railroad safety operation.

Excellent; wow,I love trains great lesson.

Very interesting video. I can only imagine what it was like to operate passenger steam trains in the late 19th century and early 20th century with no runaway safety tracks and with the type of braking that was possible at the time. I wonder if NS has a safety video made like this for Old Fort Mountain? It would be interesting to see that one as well.

Fantastic movie I've never seen before great stuff.

Thanks for posting!

Super vid! I guess they don't just push the green "GO" and red "STOP" buttons to drive them... Glad they have the cab in rear - don't want to be in the front during a runaway!!!

"The Mountain of Challenge!" Savage!

Man me and my dad used to watch these coal trains in Spartanburg

Great video, its still there. No trains, but more of a tourist attraction

Melvin Warren here “ I got your fucking train over that hill again, how about a raise sizzle chest? I’m getting tired of this shit” Melvin out…

good video. Good training video

I always thought those Silverside coal cars were really cool looking.

They sound and spoke Southern. It was common where I’m from but not so much now. Women who spoke like southern belles ,some were, that is gone also.

Great video. Those men had to have nerves of steel. You had to think ahead of each movement. RIP Mr Warren.

Really interesting to learn about the details of working dynamics and air brakes together, taking the train down the hill step by step. Cool video, pity the picture quality isn't better -- we are spoiled by digital video. The road foreman reminds me of the expert witness in My Cousin Vinny!

Second favorite railroad right here!

Anyway, they had to stop at Saluda and Melrose anyway because they had to set the brakes on the first 25 cars to 50% to get down the mountain. Once they were at Melrose, they then set them back to normal. So you had dynamics, air brakes, and the hand brakes all running to get down safely. You should have seen them split the train into sections to get back up the mountain.

Thanks. Looking at this, all I can say is that KZfaq had better be glad they don't have to deal with a supervisor for going this fast.

That's a pretty cool video, but man for years how tough did Southern and then Norfolk Southern, kept this line running for so long and then NS a few years ago finally abandoned it, what took so long for that is beyond me

And people wonder why trains "randomly" slow down or stop for no apparent reason blocking crossings. I drive for PTI,carrying railcrews around the Memphis area from their hotels to the yard and to their train or back again and to their home yard. I wonder how long he had to think about the procedures that he used daily without hardly thinking about them so he could explain the pressures and voltages in the engines and air systems.

I love the world of trains with cabooses

5:50 You've gotta love that Old Cast P5!

Nice vid. The way things operate these days, if my RFE was at the controls on something like, that, I'd get off and walk! That's no joke.

awesome video