Givens & Druthers II - The Prototype

The Southern Railway's S-Line runs westward from Salisbury, NC, through Asheville to Bull's Gap, TN. Most of my early rail-fanning in North Carolina involved the section of this line between Hickory and Asheville. An article in the January 1981 Model Railroader about the Southern's Asheville Special made me think about including that on the layout. The Asheville Special stopped running in 1975. The locomotives that I was most familiar with on this line, EMD GP38-2s and SD40-2s, were purchased starting in 1972, so I decided on 1974 for the time period of the layout.



Trying to figure out how to squeeze the Southern's Loops, between Old Fort and Ridgecrest, into my train house was giving me fits. I got a 1974 employee timetable, and started looking at it. The eastern end of the line had interesting operations in 1974, much of which ended with the construction of the new Spencer Yard in Linwood, NC, in 1979. Below is a map of this section of the Southern.

The lines in red are being modeled. Black lines are non-modeled Carolina Division lines. Blue lines are lines of other divisions or railroads. Not all lines are shown. Click on the image for a larger version.

The S-Line started at a wye in Salisbury, connecting it to the Southern's Washington to Atlanta main line. North of the wye was the Eastern Division, and south was the Piedmont Division. The old Spencer Yard was 2.6 miles north of the wye, adjacent to the locomotive shops, which is now the North Carolina Transportation Museum. Spencer and Salisbury will be represented by the east end staging yard on the layout. West of the wye was double track, signaled in one direction on each track (right hand running) according to rule D-251. The double track ended at Majolica, mile post S-2.1.

Majolica to Barber, at mile post S-11.6, was single track remote control. In Southern Ry. terminology, remote control was CTC that was under the control of someone other than the dispatcher. In this case, the operator at Barber. The switch at Majolica was a spring switch which was kept lined for eastbound trains to enter the eastbound track. There was an absolute signal at the switch on the westbound track. When a westbound trains approached Majolica an alarm would ring in the operator's office at Barber. The operator would contact the dispatcher and either clear the westbound signal at Majolica or hold the train at Majolica for an eastbound.

At Barber, the S-Line crossed the Charlotte to Winston-Salem L-Line. The operator at Barber controlled the signals at the crossing. All trains on the L-Line and westbound trains on the S-Line were required to get clearance cards at Barber. West of the crossing was a 139 car siding and a small yard. Barber also included wye connections in the northwest, southwest, and southeast quadrants of the crossing. The trains on the L-Line would interchange blocks with the S-Line trains at Barber. The main track was covered by yard limits from Barber to Cleveland at milepost S-13.4.

West of Barber to Asheville the S-Line was timetable and train order with ABS signals. This was true until the 1990s after the NS merger. The line still has ABS signals, but is now controlled with track warrants, including the former remote control section between Majolica and Barber. The double track east of Majolica is still operated by signal indication.

The next significant station on the S-Line was Statesville at milepost S-25, which had a 46 car siding. The main track through Statesville was covered by yard limits, but trains could proceed at track speed if "the way was known to be clear." The ABS signals satisfied that requirement. Statesville was the first stop for the Asheville Special west of Salisbury and, in addition to the passenger station, there was also a freight station and many industrial customers, mostly in the furniture or textile business. The largest customer in Statesville was the Statesville Flour Mill, which was a wholesale flour producer that shipped to large commercial bakeries. They also produced animal feed from the spoils of the flour milling process. The flour and feed mill still exist and are now owned by Bartlett Milling.

The Southern's Charlotte to Statesville line, formerly the Atlantic, Tennesee, and Ohio (the O-Line), joined the S-Line at a wye in Statesville. The O-Line continued northward to Taylorsville, NC, but most of that was sold to the Alexander Railroad (ARC) in 1946. The Southern had a switcher stationed in Statesville, mostly to service the flour mill, but it also handled other local switching and the interchange with the ARC. The operator at Statesville worked from 9:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m. seven days per week.

Eufola is located at milepost S-32.2. Eufola is a 147 car siding that is out in the country. There is no station building and no operator here. After crossing the Catawba River, the S-Line reaches Catawba, NC at milepost S-38. The branch line to the Marshall Steam Plant at Terrell, NC, left the S-Line here and it was the destination for the Catawba unit coal trains. I do not have room to do justice to the bridge here or the line to Terrell and Catawba is not included on my layout.

Claremont, NC, is the location of a 265 car siding at milepost S-42. There was a station building here, but by 1974 it was boarded up and abandoned. It has since been demolished.

Newton is located at milepost S-48.2, just west of a 9.6° curve that has a 15 mph speed limit for all trains. There was an operator at Newton from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Newton was a stop for the Asheville Special and there was some industrial development in Newton, again mostly textiles and furniture manufacturing. Yard limits extended from Newton to Hickory, a distance of about ten miles.

Newton was also where the former Carolina & Northwestern Ry. line from Gastonia and York, SC, joined the S-Line. There was a small yard for the C&NW local to get its train put together before heading south.

Newton will be the last station on my layout, but west of there was Conover at milepost S-50.8 and then Oyama Yard at milepost S-53.1. Oyama Yard will not be modeled, but will be the west end staging yard for my layout. The S-Line goes through Hickory, where the C&NW line goes north to Lenoir, and the S-Line continues west to Asheville at milepost S-138.9.

I didn't originally intend to model the C&NW line south of Newton, but I got tired of building the west end staging yard, so decided to add it so that I could have somewhere to run some trains while working on the rest of the layout. It will be severely compressed, with only small sections in Newton, Lincolnton, and Gastonia being modeled. I worked at the Burlington Industries spinning mill in Lincolnton in the summer of 1979. The Southern delivered cotton in boxcars a couple of days per week and the Seaboard Coast Line went past the other side of the plant on a high fill. The plant was closed before I finished college in upstate New York in 1982.