Trains of Asheville, NC: Mountain Railroading with Blue Ridge Southern and NS

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4 жыл бұрын

Seeing and hearing trains clawing upgrade has to be one of my favorite aspects of railfanning, so naturally, mountain railroading is something I love to do, but don't do enough of by any means. This video focuses mainly on the Blue Ridge Southern shortline and its operation on the former NS T-Line between Canton and Asheville. However, we did manage to capture local T59 running west between Canton and Waynesville. The BLU rosters only EMD 4 and 6-axle power, consisting of GP39-2 and SD40M-2's. These motors sound great on the head of the T31 job, which is a turn between Canton and Asheville, bringing cars to and from the giant Evergreen Packaging paper mill in Canton.
In addition to the BLU, NS still has a small presence in Asheville. A through freight each way and a couple locals based in Asheville are the only scheduled freights anymore. We were lucky enough to catch a late-running 123 heading east at Swannanoa and east of Old Fort running with a 3x2 engine configuration.
I hope you all enjoy this video, and if you do, like, comment, and subscribe for more content!
-- November 23, 2019 --
- BLU T Line -
T59 (West - Canton and Clyde, NC)
T31 (East - Canton, Candler, and Asheville, NC)
T31 (West - Asheville, NC)
-- November 24, 2019 --
- Norfolk Southern S Line -
123 (East - Swannanoa and Old Fort, NC)
T31 (West - Enka and Canton, NC)

Пікірлер: 19

@jamesburnside3023 4 жыл бұрын

Fantastic shooting in some trying light

@chickpanlittle4629 2 ай бұрын

The Ashville to Salisbury Amtrak line is planned to build, but I think there is a more direct route to Charlotte. The rail at Maiden can build a line to join Lincolnton, just several miles away.

@hnf1930 4 жыл бұрын

Awesome video!!

@mznalam9089 4 жыл бұрын

Very nice

@RailfanTurner 4 жыл бұрын

Terrific catches! Asheville North Carolina (the whole city) was pitching for Amtrak to run down there but haven't seen any progress recently. I wish that Amtrak could stop at Asheville NC, Outer Banks NC, Myrtle Beach SC, and other places that don't have any Amtrak service.

@PlaneBoy2520 4 жыл бұрын

The problem is everyone wants Amtrak service but no one wants to pay the taxes required to run extra Amtrak services.

@Captainstrains9882 3 жыл бұрын

the matnance speed on the s line is 25mph. i've been seeing lots of trains going around 25mph in black mountain and more towns on the way.

@KG-xt4oq 3 жыл бұрын

NS has abandoned through trains on the S-line (A-ville to Salisbury), so the chances of Amtrak happening are slim to none, and slim just left the building. Besides, A-ville would need to build a new depot since the original is now a restaurant or some other tourist building and has been for decades. Besides, who would want to ride a train for what would probably be a 5-6 hour trip from Salisbury to A-ville when you can get there by car in 2.5? The once-every-5 years-crowd is who, and they won't bring in enough revenue to operate at even a moderate loss.

@Captainstrains9882 3 жыл бұрын

@@KG-xt4oq Currently the old depot is a Habitat for humanity office and currently a train ride is 7 to 9hr’s with an average speed of 20mph

@KG-xt4oq 3 жыл бұрын

@@Captainstrains9882 Uh, the old depot is a bar & grille (Village Wayside)...I ate there. Granted that was 2 years ago, but I looked up their website and they are still in business. If line speed on the S-line is restricted to 20mph, I can see why NS terminated it's through trains and there's no way Amtrak would be interested in running passenger service at such slow speeds.