About an hour North of Charlotte, the Southern Railroad had a major Steam locomotive maintenance facility in the town of Spencer. That rail yard is now the North Carolina transportation museum.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, a four day event was held called Streamlinere at Spencer<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.myfoxchicago.com\/story\/25645657\/streamliners-at-spencer-railroad-event-rolls-into-rowan-county<\/p>\n
Passenger locomotives from all over the country were sent to Spencer for this once in a lifetime event. One of the ones I recognized right away is a New Haven paint job FP9 that was still in service on the Waterberry commuter line as a couple years ago. <\/p>\n
While this was an interesting event (I didn’t go), the five-year-old in the video is not learning much railroad history. I didn’t see anything on display that remotely resembles a streamliner.<\/p>\n
Streamliners were integrated sets of locomotives and passenger cars \u2013 introduced in the 1930s to try to hold off the growth of airline traffic and the US Highway system. The very first strea liners were steam, then replaced with diesel locomotives after World War II.<\/p>\n
Most of the 25 locomotives on display were 1950s era GM Electromotive diesels in various paint schemes. In passenger service, they typically pulled unrelated aging pre WW2 wooden passenger cars, just before and after Amtrak took over passenger rail service in the Zunited States. GM’s primary business was selling cars, not R&D on new high speed rail equipment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About an hour North of Charlotte, the Southern Railroad had a major Steam locomotive maintenance facility in the town of Spencer. That rail yard is now the North Carolina transportation museum. Over the weekend, a four day event was held … Continue reading