In 1967 Jones Tours ended its rail-excursion service and parked the trains on a siding of the G&N at Travelers Rest, South Carolina, where they remained until removed for scrapping in 1970. The Baldwin RP-210 diesel-hydraulic prime-movers of the trainsets remained operational for short trips over the Pickens and the Greenville & Northern, but the complete trainsets were pulled by locomotives of the Class-1 hosts on excursions further afield. These tours ran mostly between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, but ranged as far as Alabama and Florida. Jones purchased the trains for little more than their scrap value, and partially refurbished two of them at Pickens' newly established car rebuilding plant, the third train used for spare parts. In 19, "Jones Tours" (named after Pickens Railways' owner, James Jones) purchased all three of Pullman Car Company’s Train X nine-car articulated lightweight trainsets, (the Xplorer from the New York Central, and the two Dan'l Webster trains from the New Haven Railroad) for use in passenger excursions.
Jones built a new enginehouse and established a carshop for rebuilding and renovating railroad cars. Jones of North Carolina purchased the line for approximately $50,000. In 1963, Poinsett Lumber and Manufacturing Company announced that the Pickens Railroad was for sale. In 1959, The Singer Company consolidated its sawmill and cabinet operations with the woodworking operations from Arkansas and the Craftsman power tools from New Jersey to the Pickens location. Passenger service was discontinued in 1928 as better roads were built in the region. By 1939, it too was also acquired by Singer and organized under the Poinsett Lumber and Manufacturing Company. In 1927, the Appalachian Lumber Company built a network of logging lines in the upper portion of Pickens County. The plant eventually became the railroad's biggest customer and the line was purchased outright in 1939 by Singer. In the 1920s, Singer Manufacturing located a sewing machine cabinet plant on the Pickens Railroad. The Southern Railway briefly acquired control of the Pickens around 1910, however, it was reverted to local interests several years later. The Pickens Railroad, at the time did not have turning facilities until the line built two wye sections of track at each end of the line years later. In its early years, it was nicknamed the "Pickens Doodle" because the train would run backwards to Easley and forward to Pickens, which "looked like a doodlebug," according to area residents. On the railroad's first revenue run, the Pickens Railroad suffered a serious derailment that was caused by a local group of boys that had placed spikes on the rails, in their words, "to see what would happen." No one was seriously injured, but caused the fledgling company a serious financial setback, which operated in the red until 1905. The line connected with the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad (later the Southern Railway) and was completed in 1898. The Easley-Pickens line was chartered on December 24, 1890, by the South Carolina General Assembly after two failed attempts to build a railroad through Pickens from Easley.
located in Pickens until 2013), while the Anderson-Belton handles kaolin, limestone, synthetic rubber, rubber processing oil, plastics, silica, scrap metal, paper, scrap paper, bird feed ingredients, farm supplies, and electrical equipment.
Traffic included transportation equipment on the original Pickens line (in the form of locomotive remanufacture CLCX, Inc. Rail was 85-100 pounds on the Easley-Pickens segment and 85 pounds on the Anderson-Honea Path segment. Anderson, through Belton to Honea Path: 28.5 miles (45.9 km)Ĭonnections are made with the Norfolk Southern at Easley and Anderson, and with the Greenville and Western Railway at Belton.Easley to Pickens: 9.9 miles (15.9 km) - abandoned and lifted in 2013.Pickens Railway ( reporting marks PICK, PKHP) is a shortline railroad that has operated on two separate divisions in the Upstate Region of South Carolina:
0 kommentar(er)
