Norfolk Southern Asheville District

F

farthegn

ET&WNC Conductor
Has anybody been Railfanning on the Old Fort Loops,the place is so cool! The traffic is fikle but there's always something interesting in a train that goes by!

Check out these pics from other photographers!
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=319114
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1023629
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=9398
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=336060
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=57853
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=42504
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=131203
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=131217
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=95379
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=103931
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=111296
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=111191

I have pictures of my own, but I havent uploaded them yet.:)
 
SD70M-2 and SD40-2

Joram24 has made it quite easier on me by making a low-nosed SD40-2 and an SD70M-2, someone else also created an ex-Conrail GP38. Trere are alot of SD70M-2s and SD40-2s on the line!
 
Yes, we can!

:cool: gfisher has modeled the loops, kuid 106916 1102 on the Download Station.

You can copy the above kuid as it is & select TRS2004 to get the route...it has a lot of dependencies, details.

It runs from Back Mountain to Old Fart.

I have a DEM of Ashville to Spartanburg I've had forever but don't have the time to do it right now.

I can't wait to see the newbies run off the Saluda Grade out of control!
 
Last edited:
No Title

I have the Saluda Grade on MSTS. The Old Fort Loops that i've downloaded off of the Download Station I have found are inacurate, because the Curves are either too sharp, too wide, or not even there, like the straight away near the top of the loops that goes through 2 tunnels at once and there are a few tunnels missing! The present Old Fort Loops run very Squirly on my computer. I'd like to do a complete makeover on them. There are also sidings that shouldn't be there, atleast anymore. The buildings in the town of Old Fort look like monoliths on there! In real life the town of Old Fort has very small buildings. As a person that has been all over the Old Fort Loops himself, I think the map is rather inaccurate.

Important inclusions:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=18325&nseq=60
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=18324&nseq=61
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=281409&nseq=1
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=210018&nseq=5
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=54436&nseq=12


Be sure to post that DEM on the DLS! I can atleast do part of it... I can't wait to get started! I can't recieve big E-mails because my phoneline has only 26KBs.
 
backyard said:
I can't wait to see the newbies run off the Saluda Grade out of control!
Click to expand...

After driven on Interstate 26 and seen many near-crashes of 2000 pound vehicles, I can just image the nightmare of a 2000 ton consist.

The route west from Asheville, the "Murphy Branch", is also interesting. And there is now the tourist railroad, the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad, http://www.gsmr.com/. If I were better at using a DEM program, I might even try doing the Nantahala Gorge area. I'll have to see if I can find the pics I took of a train full of tourists starting up the gorge. I took the pic from a hillside just under a mile away and 800' up.:eek:
 
bigricho said:
After driven on Interstate 26 and seen many near-crashes of 2000 pound vehicles, I can just image the nightmare of a 2000 ton consist.

The route west from Asheville, the "Murphy Branch", is also interesting. And there is now the tourist railroad, the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad, http://www.gsmr.com/. If I were better at using a DEM program, I might even try doing the Nantahala Gorge area. I'll have to see if I can find the pics I took of a train full of tourists starting up the gorge. I took the pic from a hillside just under a mile away and 800' up.:eek:
Click to expand...

that has got to be a scary thought!:eek:
 
GSMR

I've ridden the GSMR 5 years ago to about halfway through the gorge.
Very scenic and pulled by a cool low nose GP9.:cool:
 
SR Murphy branch pictures..

Does somebody have or could find any pictures of the SR murphy branch before GSMR took it over... I couldn't find any pictures or any thing on rrpicturearchives or railpictures.
 
farthegn said:
Does somebody have or could find any pictures of the SR murphy branch before GSMR took it over... I couldn't find any pictures or any thing on rrpicturearchives or railpictures.
Click to expand...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/esywlkr/1338103249/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esywlkr/1338108545/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/esywlkr/1338114485/
http://www.srha.net/documents/logginginfo.pdf

There's not much online,
There is a book on the Murphy Branch which should have some, and I know Curt Tillotson's books have some, and there's some pics in David P. Morgan's 4501 book as well.

backyard said:
I can't wait to see the newbies run off the Saluda Grade out of control!
Click to expand...

I can't wait running freights with Ls-2's on the end helping.:hehe:
 
Last edited:
So, now I know why GSMR exists.

Now I can see why the NS or SOU didn't want the branch anymore, the trains were shorter than the trains that used to come through my hometown!

I'm glad it wasn't dismantled, like the Virginia Creeper. Very scenic route!

I heard that GSMR stil pulls a little bit of freight. Is that true, or just more rumors?
 
farthegn said:
I have the Saluda Grade on MSTS. The Old Fort Loops that i've downloaded off of the Download Station I have found are inacurate, because the Curves are either too sharp, too wide, or not even there, like the straight away near the top of the loops that goes through 2 tunnels at once and there are a few tunnels missing! The present Old Fort Loops run very Squirly on my computer. I'd like to do a complete makeover on them. There are also sidings that shouldn't be there, atleast anymore. The buildings in the town of Old Fort look like monoliths on there! In real life the town of Old Fort has very small buildings. As a person that has been all over the Old Fort Loops himself, I think the map is rather inaccurate.

Important inclusions:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=18325&nseq=60
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=18324&nseq=61
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=281409&nseq=1
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=210018&nseq=5
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=54436&nseq=12


Be sure to post that DEM on the DLS! I can atleast do part of it... I can't wait to get started! I can't recieve big E-mails because my phoneline has only 26KBs.
Click to expand...


if you ever do get the route redone and you need any assistance let me know, i am from asheville and have done lots of railfanning pretty much all over WNC to include a cab ride on the GSMRR and one on the CSX in Green Mtn NC. i do have a question about the saluda grade route if you may know anything about that one im having major issues with it and the place i got it screwed it up where it doesnt have all the files i need to run it or at least get into the route to run trains.
 
farthegn said:
Now I can see why the NS or SOU didn't want the branch anymore, the trains were shorter than the trains that used to come through my hometown!

I'm glad it wasn't dismantled, like the Virginia Creeper. Very scenic route!

I heard that GSMR stil pulls a little bit of freight. Is that true, or just more rumors?
Click to expand...


yes the GSMRR does still pull freight i have a very good freind who is an engineer with GSMRR, invited me to go with them sometime when they run the freight, basically NS transfers the cars over to GSMRR at the paper plant in sylva, then the GSMRR crew takes it to andrews and wherever else need be, also a little cool information they utilize the Southern Railway Historical Society's Southern Bay window caboose on the freight train for when they are backing and what not. it is a very awesome sight. they cab is in very good condition and still has her original numbers
 
I thought of something, if steam comes back to Great Smoky Mountains RR, if NS would let them, they could run a steam trip to Asheville. NS is running steam again, so why not let a few tourist roads that have an NS interchange run occasional steam excursions on NS? Essentially, NS is partnering with a tourist railroad/railroad museum, the TVRM in Tennessee for the new steam program. Also, why don't Asheville, Roanoke, Knoxville, and Chattanooga have Amtrak service? There are many US cities that have no Amtrak service. Allentown, PA is one of them. I'm from Allentown area. Norfolk Southern serves Allentown, they took over part of Conrail. Last commuter train from Allentown to Philadelphia was in Sept 1979, it was an extension that lasted over a year, then was cut back to Bethlehem, then Quakertown July, 1981 then cut north of Lansdale end of July, 1981. If I wanted to go to Chattanooga or Knoxville, for example, the only way to get there without driving by land transportation would be bus? BTW, NS just had a steam excursion between those two Tennessee cities on Nov 14. It was the first time in years the public could ride that line since it has no Amtrak service. Steam had over heated bearings, so they cut it off halfway down and two NS diesels took the three coaches the rest of the way to TVRM station.
 
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