The Lawndale Railway & Industrial Company
On November 11, 1899, the first regular train of the Lawndale Railway & Industrial Company ran on newly-laid tracks from Lawndale to Shelby, North Carolina. The dreams of Major Henry Franklin Shenck (pictured) had finally been realized.
As a pioneer of North Carolina's booming textile industry in the late nineteenth century, Schenck had come to realize that the poor roads and the isolation of his mills were the largest impediment to the growth of his company. After waiting well over a decade for the Southern & Western Air Line to build from Shelby to Morganton to Cranberry, Schenck finally gave up on waiting for others to build him a line. He wrote to friends about his frustration of "being stuck in the mud" and the worn-out horse teams that he was relying on to haul materials to and from the Seaboard Air Line and Southern Railway in Shelby, almost ten miles away.
Consequently, Schenck decided to build his own railroad, a private concern that would serve only his mill in Lawndale. At the close of the 1800's, much secondhand narrow gauge equipment came on the market, as the slim-rails boom that had gripped the country since the 1870's was dying away fast. As a result, the Major was able to buy a fair number of freight cars for rock-bottom prices. Additionally, with a gauge (width) smaller than that of the connecting railroads in Shelby, his cars could not interchange and would remain on their home tracks, much to the Major's satisfaction.
Many of the Lawndale's freight cars came from the Carolina & North-Western Railway, which at one time was the largest narrow gauge in either of the
Carolinas.
Though the Lawndale started out as a private concern, the "dummy line" as it was nicknamed due to its diminutive size, was an immediate hit with the communities that it served.
Within six months of beginning operations, Schenck wrote that he had "been so constantly annoyed with applications to pass over [my] little road from here to Shelby that I cannot resist the demands of the people to haul them…"
As a result, the railroad was upgraded to common-carrier status, and the railroad became a fixture in North Carolina for over the next four decades.
Number 5, a Vulcan locomotive, sits inside the Cleveland Cotton Mills complex in the early 1940s. There aren't many summers left for the railroad at this point in time.
According to company records, the Lawndale Railway was built with the assistance of a leased engine, an old Class "A" Climax, rented from the Golden Valley Lumber Company in nearby Thermal City, North Carolina. The railroad did have an option to purchase this engine, but never chose to exercise it.
Schenck, while fond of buying used boxcars, insisted on having a new locomotive, and a new Porter 0-4-4T "Forney" style engine was purchased to serve the line.
Number One, shown to the left, is seen here pulling an excursion on three-rail track leading into Shelby. Until 1925, the Lawndale used dual-gauge track on either the Southern, and then the Seaboard, to travel its final miles into Shelby.
As reliable as #1 was, she was too light to handle all of the traffic generated by the mills. In 1908, a secondhand engine, a large 2-6-0 Grant was purchased. In a 1952 interview, roadmaster Hague Metcalfe mentions that this engine came to the railroad already numbered "3", and consequently, there never was a Lawndale Number Two.
However, Number Three, weighing in at nearly twice the weight of Number One, was nothing more than a mechanical headache, and she was ditched from the roster in 1908. Note that in the photo, she is on the ground!
In 1908, the Lawndale Railway invested in brand new motive power once again, settling on Number 4, a Vulcan 2-8-0 Consolidation. Number 4 (pictured here) proved so successful that Number Three was promptly removed from the property, and an identical engine, Number 5 (pictured below) was ordered.
After #5's arrival in 1909, Number One was sold to a dealer, and the pair of Vulcan's served the Lawndale Railway & Industrial Company continuously until the end of the railroad in 1945. The only major rebuild ever documented on either engine came in the middle of the Great Depression, when Frank Coffey, late of the Carolina & North-Western, "robbed parts off of one to keep the other one running.," eventually doing a complete rebuild on both locomotives.
Ride the Lawndale Dummy
Most of the pictures that exist of the Lawndale Railway were taken on March 3, 1942 by famed railroad photographer Bob Richardson. At the time of these photographs, Bob was working for Sieberling Rubber (Tire), and the truck he was chasing trains with bore the company's insignia. Coincidentally, the insignia bore a faint resemblance to a Nazi swastika... a hated symbol by Americans, particularly in the midst of World War II (and still rightly hated to this day).
While most people may not have thought that Lawndale and her little railroad were of valuable strategic importance, one hawk-eyed resident believed otherwise.
When she saw Bob Richardson chasing the little train in a Nazi truck, she knew that the Germans were up to no good, and she alerted the local sheriff. Quick to investigate the war crime, the sheriff pulled over Bob, and after a big laugh and a simple explanation, it was determined that the Lawndale Dummy was in danger no more. Thankfully for all, it was a good day to remember. Now settle back, and take a ride, courtesy of Bob Richardson, on the Dummy Line...
Image: Sitting at Lawndale Junction with the Seaboard Air Line, Lawndale #4 sits with her tiny train as a local chugs by on standard gauge tracks.
Number Four rolls alongside Highway 26 (now 226) on her way home to the Cleveland Mills. Don't blink, we've just passed Cobby Horn's house in the background.
From the back of the combine, or the "cab" as it was called, the rolling piedmont of Cleveland County can be plainly seen.
Almost home, as the train passes by the Double Shoals depot. This depot, one at Lawndale, and one at Lawndale Junction, were the only ones along the railroad. There was also a two-stall enginehouse at Lawndale, and a warehouse at the Seaboard depot. This warehouse is the only existing Lawndale Railway structure.
The train is just outside the mill complex in Lawndale, sitting on the tall Mill Creek (London's Branch) trestle. This was the largest structure on the railroad. Hey, there's Nick Wells and Doc Sweezy standing on that boxcar!
Before his passing, Frank Coffey recalled that the trestle was also an invaluable tool for repairing the locomotives. "The mill didn't have a pit for getting under those damn engines, so I'd run em' up on the trestle, and knock out a few crossties under the rails. We'd stand on the bank under the bridge and crawl up under the engines. A couple of times we had to weld the frames, as those Vulcans could be awful brittle!"
The Lawndale Railway Today
On April 30, 1943, the last train pulled out of Lawndale. The equipment was parked, and within two years, the Interstate Commerce Commission allowed the railroad to be abandoned.
For nearly 45 years, the railroad was the thread that bound the tiny textile community together.
Not much is left of the railroad in 2003, and Nick Wells (pictured), was the last surviving train man. In this photo, he is standing at Lawndale Junction in March, 1999 as a CSX freight roars by on the old Seaboard Air Line trackage.
Until his passing in February, 2003, Nick claimed that his days as brakeman and fireman on the Lawndale were the best times of his life.
The grandest testimony to the memory of the Lawndale is the museum at Metcalfe's, the approximate halfway point on the railroad, and the site of Hague Metcalfe's old service station.
Metcalfe supervised the building of the railroad and was its road foreman for its entire existence.
The museum was dedicate in November, 2001 and contains the restored service station and a restored Lawndale boxcar, complete with its original trucks. The complex is located off of NC Highway 226.
Boxcar 314, a 34 foot homemade car, is one of six Lawndale boxcars that exist today, but it is the only one with its original trucks, grab irons, and hardware. It is available for public viewing next to Highway 226 between Lawndale and Shelby, NC.
This view shows the interior of the boxcar, where very little restoration was required. Note the arched roof supports, the original planking on the roof, and the plankingon the interior walls, only halfway up.
For more details on the life of the Lawndale Railway, its people, its equipment, and its legacy, please be sure to purchase a copy of the award winning Lawndale Railway & Industrial Company.