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I made it out for a couple of days train riding October 28th and 29th and thought I'd share a few observations.
Friday afternoon in Salisbury, NC I boarded train 74, the midday Piedmont, enroute to Cary, NC. Consist was a single locomotive, the automat car, three coaches, and then a combined coach-baggage car on the rear..... added for the extra coach seating on a train which was filled to capacity upon departure from Greensboro.
We left nearly ont-me but fell to about 20-25 minutes behind by Cary on account of the heavier than normal Friday passenger load.
The newly expanded Cary station has sizeable windows, plenty of natural light, safe parking, and is already attracting passengers who otherwise used the less attractive downtown Raleigh station or avoided rail travel altogether. Platform work along the former Seaboard Railroad tracks has been completed and checked baggage is now available on every train serving Cary.
Something was up with number 79, the southbound Carolinian. We heard it whistle around the curve right on time BUT then the train stopped and sat for 10 minutes just before leaving the former Seaboard and entering the former Southern for my return trip to Salisbury via Greensboro.
Signal problems.
We manage to lose a total of 40 minutes altogether. Again, Friday evening and the train was full. Only a handful of single seats were available as I boarded in Cary and those seemed to have been seats just vacated by detraining passengers. At each stop couples who had been split just to find a seat hustled to claim just vacated seats before the newly boarding passengers had a chance at them. Fair enough..... and not something which bothered me as was riding alone.
Saturday morning I was up at 4:45am so that I could make my 6:00am boarding time for a special excursion train from Spencer, NC (outside Salisbury) to Roanoke, VA. I got to ride in a dome car, there were 25 passenger cars (half of them privately held Heritage fleet era equipment) with over 1000 riders...... many of whom would otherwise not ride a passenger train.
Being in the first class section of the train, my ticket included a catered breakfast and a catered supper served in the Moultrie, a former Atlantic Coast Line diner restored and maintained for charter and excursion service by the good people at the Watauga Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (Johnson City, TN.) It was a fun day riding the Southern Railway mainline up to Altavista, VA (first time I had ridden the Southern line north from Greensboro in the daylight since before Southern Railway #6 was discontinued in 1976).
From Altavista we turned westward on the former Virginian Railway to Roanoke. There I had the opportunity to visit the O. Winston Link Museum and Loewy Gallery in the former Norfolk & Western Roanoke Passenger Station.
I would recommend Roanoke as worth a visit .... and Sojourner, there is a new connecting bus from Lynchburg into Roanoke!!!
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Great news, David, and great trip report. I still haven't even made it to Asheville, of course, but one of these days . . . Is Roanoke walkable, or does one need a car to get to these museums? Thanks for all the info!!!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Ms. Sojourner, stay at the Hotel Roanoke (rooms with a view) and you will be across the street from the N&W Station where the Link Gallery is venued.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Sounds like a great trip, David. What was the heritage of the dome? Did you return via the same route or through Lynchburg on the N&W? The Virginian route is certainly 'rare mileage' as that road's last passenger train was 1956?
I saw somewhere that the 611 (the famous N&W steam locomotive) is being named 'The Spirit of Roanoke" as an icon of the rail activity in that city. It's also being moved to a more prominent spot in the VA Transportation Museum; did you have time to check it out? Any substantive talk about turning the Roanoke bus into a train?
It's nice to see a train report on the forum again, even if not via Amtrak.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Sojourner - yes, downtown Roanoke is walkable and staying at the classic Hotel Roanoke would put you within easy reach of the Link Museum in the former N&W passenger station, a striking (from the outside) new art museum, and also the transportation museum which houses a pair of famous Roanoke-built steam locomotives and a number of other railroad artifacts. If the Hotel Roanoke is too pricey, there are other hotels nearby. I spotted a Days Inn from the train..... though admittedly that is a chain of last resort for me when planning a trip.
Palmland - the ride over that 43 mile stretch of the former Virginian was fascinating. Several tunnels and at least four or five of those soaring steel trestles that are all over N&W territory in the Virginia's. I understand that NS utilizes the Virginian for loaded coal trains eastbouond from Roanoke because it has lighter grades than the original N&W route through Lynchburg. I was very much fascinated by the sweeping southwest quadrant connecting track built in 1983 following the Norfolk Southern merger which allowed us to move from northbound on the Southern to westbound on the Virginian. This junction point is identified as 'Hurt' in the NS timetables and is located just south of Altavista, VA.
There were four domes on the train. I was riding in one of the two 'full domes' which are among the 9 owned by the Iowa Pacific Corporation.... a shortline freight operator with tourist train operations in Alamosa, CO and Saratoga Springs, NY I think. We were told that our car began life on the Santa Fe in the consist of the 'El Capitan' before going to the original Auto-Train in the 1970's, Amtrak's Auto-Train in the 1980's, and into the cruise ship fleet on the Alaska Railroad in the 1990's.
And yes, there are politicians who have voiced support for extending the highly successful VADOT sponsored passenger train service to/from Lynchburg over the mountain to Roanoke. If we were in a friendlier economic environment, I'd feel like there was a decent chance of this happening. Still might someday.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Mr. Presley, you are as "close to the action" as any here with regards to NC passenger rail affairs; is there any foundation to this report appearing at another site?
quote:So the Piedmont, which runs between Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, will become push-pull.
What's the point, when the train has been able to turn around at end stations for years? Can a cab car be made from an existing coach, or would one have to be bought?
The author has been known in the past for his 'fantasies".
Addendum: there is "foundation" on Adobe Page 20 (if you care to call it that).
Maybe North Carolina, being a jurisdiction that I do believe is train friendly, will relieve Wisconsin of their boondoggle (Talgos) and retire their museum pieces.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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There has been talk of a new station being fashioned from an old warehouse in Raleigh that sits across the tracks (and inside the wye) from the current former Southern Railway Station used there by Amtrak.
As near as I can tell, the possibility of push-pull was mentioned in that study though I'm not certain if it was because of limited track space during the conversion work in Raleigh or an attempt to reduce turning costs in Charlotte.
Given that the NCDOT owns no cab control cars nor, again so far as I can tell, has no plans to purchase any, I would say that this report is little more than conjecture at this stage.
Now an immediate push-pull operation could be achieved using a locomotive at either end of the train...... but then you've got a longer, heavier, costlier train which wouldn't fit on the house track in Charlotte if it had more than about 5 cars (allowing space for a second unit). What was supposed to save money might likely cost more.
Bottom line - I wouldn't say that push-pull on the NCDOT trains is out of the question - just something that would surprise me if it happened any time soon.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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