|| Kings Mountain Railroad & the Chester and Lenoir Narrow Gauge ||
The Carolina & N-W railway had its roots in the antebellum Kings Mountain Railroad that ran from Chester, SC, to York, SC. By 1874, the Kings Mountain RR was purchased by the Chester & Lenoir Narrow Gauge Railroad, with plans to extend the line to Lenoir, NC. It took ten years to reach Lenoir, with 0-6-0 #2 (right), reaching the terminus of the line on May 17, 1884. Two weeks later, 4-4-0 #4 (below) pulled the first regularly scheduled train into Lenoir. At over 120 miles, the railroad was the largest narrow gauge railroad, by far, in either of the Carolinas.
Over the course of the next decade, the railroad operated under the umbrella of the Richmond & Danville, essentially consolidating thru passenger trains with the Chester & Cheraw, running trains from Lancaster, SC, to Lenoir, NC.
In 1894, the R&D was re-organized as the Southern Railway, and the C&L operated on its own for a few years. By 1896, robber baron tactics of the Southern forced the railroad into receivership, and it was re-organized as the Carolina & North-Western Railway. Though technically controlled by the Southern, this shortline, more than any other in the Southern Railway family, was allowed to operate almost autonomously.
By 1902, the C&N-W was standard gauged, and it purchased a controlling interest in a logging railroad, the Caldwell & Northern, that ran from Lenoir to Collettsville, NC.
By 1906, the railroad had been expanded to Edgemont, NC, and the railroad was nearly 150 miles long. Logging and timber boomed north-west of Lenoir, and contributed to the growth of Lenoir and Hickory, NC as the renowned furniture capital of the world.
In 1912, new shops were built in Hickory, and within a decade, a locomotive, #167 (left), was even built in the shops. Here, it is shown under the shed at Chester, where photos of this railroad are hard to come by.
From the early 1910s, through the 1940s, passenger trains were handled mainly by little 4-6-0's like #207 (right), and her sister, #206.
Freight was initially handled by four little 2-8-0's (#270- #273), below, though by the end of the 1920's, second hand K-class Southern Railway Consolidations began appearing on the railroad (below, right). By 1938, the railroad was abandoned from west Lenoir to Edgemont, and passenger service was discontinued in 1947. By 1948, steam was completely gone from the railroad and replaced by diesels.
From 1912 to 1972, the Hickory Shops were mostly overseen by Charlie Coffey or his son, Frank.
Above, by the yellow car, is Frank in 1998. At the top left of the right-hand picture, is Frank in 1928. His father Charlie is in the lower left. Frank passed away in 2000.
The Hickory shops were built in 1912 after the old ones in Chester, SC burned. It was the most advanced shop between Salisbury and Asheville, and locomotives were completely overhauled at the facility. In 1923, locomotive #167 was built from the ground up in Hickory, and made its maiden voyage to Granite Falls.
The shops consisted of a main "L" shaped locomotive house, a covered car shed in the rear, and a transfer table which transported the locomotives and cars to the correct storage and repair tracks (visible to the left of adjacent photo). Engines were turned on a wye rather than a turntable.
What is that car under the cab to the right? Hmm… buy the book to find out!
The last steam locomotive completely serviced at the Hickory shops was leased 2-8-0 #544, serviced in late 1947. Diesels were on the way, and most of these men would be out of job. On a roster that two years previously held nearly a dozen steam engines, four Alco RS-2's would easily suffice.
Carolina & Northwestern Railway Rolling Stock
Side door cabooses ruled the railroad from 1902...
...until the early 1950's , when SR-style bay windows arrived.
After the Great Depression, the only company freight cars other than the cabooses were for MOW duty.
From the beginning of standard gauge days in 1902, passenger equipment largely consisted of Southern Railway hand-me-downs. Here, a Jim Crow combine sits at an unidentified location in South Carolina during the winter of 1941. Passenger service ended in 1947, with George Ruff as the engineer on the final leg from Hickory to Chester.
Most MOW equipment was also Southern hand-me-downs. The only exception were five new ballast hoppers that arrived in the 1950's.
Alco Diesels of the Carolina & North-Western
In May, 1948 four Alco RS-2 diesels arrived in Hickory to replace the old fleet of steam locomotives. The Carolina & North-Western was one of the first completely dieselized railroads in the southeast.
Initially, the units were a dark green (not Sylvan Green) with yellow striping and lettering.
By the mid 1950's, most of the RS-2's were wearing Southern Railway's scheme of Sylvan Green, Imitation Aluminum, and yellow lettering. Here, #3 is seen in Gastonia in 1955. Note the railroad emblem on the short hood.
General Foreman Frank Coffey remembered that the diesels performed admirably, but they caused him the "greatest grief of [his] life." The shop force, which had totaled nearly 40 men at one time, had to be cut down to a dozen. "To look a man in the eye and tell 'em that you don't need him anymore is a goddam thing hard to do," Frank once remarked. The photo at right was taken in 1948 at the Hickory shops by a Southern Railway photographer.
Number Eleven: One of a Kind Love Affair
By 1956, the Carolina & North-Western had been running Alco RS-2 and RS-3 locomotives for eight years. The shop and General Foreman in Hickory had developed a strong working relationship with the American Locomotive Company. With the approval of Southern Railway Vice President H.M. Ramsey, a deal was entered into that allowed the C&NW, and by default, the SR, to test Alco's newest entry into the high-horsepower diesel locomotive market.
This would be an interesting test for both the manufacturer and the railroad, as strong competition to Alco and its line of diesels was the GP-9, a product of General Motors Electro-Motive-Division. The new Alco RS-11 proved to be a worthy competitor on paper to its 1750-horsepower rival.
Image: Number 11 arrived to the C&N-W with Sylvan Green paint, imitation aluminum striping, yellow lettering and yellow and trim.
Sporting a high hood on standard AAR Type B trucks, the brawny locomotive sported a 251B 12-cylinder diesel that provided 1800 HP. This raw power and high hood distinguished it immediately from its earlier predecessors.
The Carolina & N-W's new Alco was numbered "11", maintaining a sequential order of the other Alco diesels on the roster of the railroad. Built in late March of 1956, on Alco sales order S-3252, she arrived in the Hickory switchyard on March 30 at 8:00pm. She was painted in Sylvan green, with imitation aluminum striping, and yellow lettering. Pure Southern Railway style but with C&N-W lettering. By 8:00 the next morning, she had been delivered to the Hickory shops, accompanied by two high-ranking Alco officials who were supposed to demonstrate the engine to Southern officials the following Monday.
Image: Barely a month old in May, 1956, #11 was the muscle behind the grand celebration that surrounded ET&WNC #12's return to North Carolina and her re-building at the Hickory shops.
This was to be a very important meeting, as it would provide a first impression to the movers and shakers that would help determine the Southern Railway's future locomotive needs, and as general foreman Frank Coffey noted, "the Spencer boys [of the Southern] weren't too damn fond of Alcos as it was!"
As fate would have it, trouble immediately reared its head on the new engine. Frank Coffey's diary on Saturday, March 31 mentioned that he "checked the engine and started it up. Control system trouble." Coffey, his best men, and the Alco officials worked diligently all weekend to find and repair the problem, but by Monday morning, they were no further along than square one. Another Alco official was hastily dispatched from Atlanta, but before he arrived, shop-worker Bob Pope found a broken wire on a transformer in the lead truck. Bob recalled that the wire was "no bigger than a hair on your head," and that he probably could have found the problem days earlier if "all the people who didn't know anything had kept their hands out the way." With the problem identified, the broken wire was hastily soldered and repaired. Finally, with the problem solved, Number 11 made her maiden voyage by traveling light to Lenoir and back on Tuesday, April 3, 1956.
Unfortunately for Alco, the damage was done, and the engine's first impressions must have been lasting ones in the minds of the Southern men. Ultimately, Number 11 would be the only RS-11 on the entire SR system, while the rival GP7 and GP9's would reach a total of 125 units. Nevertheless, the Carolina & N-W men remember the lone gal with fondness, and without a doubt, she earned her keep and the respect of those who ran her.
By 1965, the venerable engine was sporting the black, white, and gold tuxedo scheme of the Southern, though she still managed to retain her lettering and true identity. Tom King captures her in this photo prowling around her old stomping grounds in Gastonia....
By 1967, the Eleven was well traveled throughout the Southern Railway system. Here she is seen pulling the "Augusta Special" near Warrenville, SC in April of 1967. John Burn photograph.
Mortimer & Edgemont, North Carolina
In 1902, the C&N-W purchased a controlling interest in the Caldwell & Northern, a narrow gauge logging railroad that ran from Lenoir to Colletsville, NC. The railroad standard gauged the C&N and endeavored to push it through the Wilson Creek gorge, with the ultimate goal of expanding all the way to Butler, TN. This lofty goal was never achieved, and construction through the gorge was agonizingly slow and difficult. To the left is a construction train being pushed to the mouth of the gorge by an old ex-Richmond & Danville locomotive. Many trestles, such as the large one at Adako, below, were needed.
The railroad stopped at Mortimer and Edgemont, NC, site of the large timber mill for the W.M. Ritter Lumber Company. For nearly 10 miles, a third rail was laid on the railroad's standard gauge mainline in order to accommodate the narrow gauge logging trains. Flumes, above left, one as long as eight miles, were also used to transport lumber to the railroad.
Mortimer was the mill town, and the end of the railroad, Edgemont, was the playground. Complete with a hotel, church, and school, Edgemont was truly a paradise nestled in the heart of the mountains. Note the third rail on the tracks in this early photo of Edgemont (right). The depot still exists to this day.
Early Cabooses of the C&N-W
Very little documentation or photographic evidence exists of the narrow gauge era on the Carolina & North-Western, or that of its predecessor, the Chester & Lenoir Narrow Gauge. When the C&N-W was standard gauged in 1902, its initial fleet of cabooses was obtained secondhand. Cabs 9000 and 9001 were the first ones on the roster, followed by 9500 and 9501 in 1905.
X9501 was used by conductor J.L. Porter. By the 30's & 40's, it was used on runs between Chester, SC, and Gastonia, NC. In this photo, it is shown in Chester around 1937.
In 1910, business was on the rise and three ex-Pennsy hacks were obtained (6101, 6102, 6103). They each had different window configurations, and were classified as "package" cars due to their length and side door capacity. The 9500 and 6100 series of cabs were mainstays until WWII. The "X" prefix on the cabeese first appeared in 1926.
X6101, belonged to conductor Tom Hartley, and was used most often between Lenoir and Edgemont. Here it is shown on the last train into Edgemont in 1938.
X6103 was "owned" by conductor J.T. Lynn and used from Hickory to points south. Here, she has hit the ground south of Clover in 1938.
During and after World War II, freight business increased dramatically on the C&N-W due to industrial growth in Hickory and Lenoir. The shortage of cabooses and the age of the existing fleet began to become a nuisance to the line. As a result, one cab, 304, was built by the Hickory shops from an old boxcar. It was not well-regarded by the crews, as it was small (34 feet) and according to one crewman, the conductors "couldn't see a damn thing out of it."
This 1942 shot of X304, in Lenoir, is the only known photograph of this homebuilt hack.
Finally, by the late 1940's, the railroad began to obtain some Southern Railway hand-me downs. At least two of these center cupola SR hacks (X15, X16) were used on the railroad until the advent of the steel baywindow units in 1954.
X16 was one of at least two Southern Railway cabs that came to the railroad in the late 40's and early 50's. This picture was taken in August, 1956, by Tom King.
Carolina & North-Western Book PReview
We Hope you enjoyed this preview!
We sincerely hope you enjoyed this book preview and will consider purchasing the book!
With dozens of never-before-published photographs, this history traces the 140-year rise, fall, and rise again of the Carolina & North-Western Railway. Charting the ups and downs of the lines construction the politics, squabbling, triumphs, and failures the chronicle provides a microcosmic overview of American railroading in this story of a single line.
If you are interested in purchasing, follow THIS LINK. (coming soon)