Charleston, Asheville, and Louisville Railroad (benjaminw project thread)

Smitening

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This thread is the story of the Charleston, Asheville, and Louisville Railroad as told by Benjamin W. and very occasionally your very own charming Trainzer, me! Now post away with your Pacifics, Ben!
 
Lol, thanks. It'll have to wait for about a month, I'm leaving tomorrow and will be unable to post. A select few know parts of my road's history. If you are one of those people, post away!

-Ben
 
WOOOO, a post. lol

I have acquired PA-3s. The only road to buy them, bought for a traffic surge as the PA-1s were being rebuilt (into PA-3s no less).
Equipped with Nathan P6 horns (Nathan P5 with a 0 bell added) and the PA-3s 2,400HP engine.



-Ben
 
Sorry for the triple post, but I thought I'd make it known that I've had a hard drive crash. That means no progress on anything I was working on, and possibly the loss of everything too. The CA&L lives on though, I refuse to let it die. lol

I guess you could ask questions about the road in here if you wanted to, I'm bored and it'd give me something to do. XD

-Ben
 
I'm sorry to hear about the crash, I'm rather curious about the railroad's history and the steam roster, the 2-8-2 you have/had in the works, is it based on the prototype or is it a generic one because if it is the later, it looks really great.
 
It is neither fully based on a prototype or generic. It is completely scratch designed, which is part of the reason why I am so defensive of the locomotives. I have a fairly good understanding of steam locomotive design and so I am able to get a bit more unique with my engines by designing them myself than some others. I have nothing against those who use engines that are clones of other road's engines with detail differences, some real roads did just that. I simply take pride in something I have learned and am able to put to use. Some of my engines will be based on the engines of other roads, but not all of them. ;)As for the history of the road, that is a quite long and quite incomplete matter, but either I or Jackson will post what has been done in this thread when we get a chance.
 
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Thanks, I now understand how protective you are of the steam engine designs, I was curious and interested in the history of this fine railroad.
 
Working on it :p

The history of the CA&L hasn't been fully written. If you only wanted the pieces in chronological order with no gaps you'd barely get past the Civil War (predecessor roads). I'm currently looking for anything I have right now. I'll probably just post what I have chronologically. Although if you have any specific time periods in mind, don't hesitate to ask. I have lots of info, it's just not sequential!

-Ben
 
sorry for the double post, but here is the history so far. (I stopped at the first gap in the timeline)

The earliest traces of the Charleston Asheville and Louisville railroad can be found in 1841, with the chartering of the Carolina & Western Railway by the state of South Carolina. The C&W was tasked with laying the groundwork for southern industrialization, branching out from the bustling port of Charleston, South Carolina into the sparsely populated Appalachian region to the west. State funding and land grants allowed for the railroad to be built quickly, and by 1850 the railroad had built an extensive network for the era. Initial plans for the railroad limited it to South Carolina, however after Walter F Bristol was appointed president in 1849, a new vision soon drove the railroad to rapidly expand. W. F. Bristol envisioned a “southern trunk line,” with Charleston at its core, and he soon took advantage of the means at his disposal to fulfill this dream. The vagueness of the charter allowed the railroad to penetrate deep into the coal fields in the western part of the state, and as Charleston became more and more a hub of industrial activity, this precious resource increased in value. The road’s key position in the region was augmented by the state’s land grants given to the line, and money poured into the company from its real-estate holdings in the region. The company owned the land in which the coal was buried, the mines that unearthed it, and the railroad that transported it, allowing it to price its coal competitively and make tremendous amounts of money. Two years later, the railroad had the funds to continue building northward into North Carolina, and by 1858 the road had reached both Raleigh and Charlotte. The acquisition of the North Carolina & Atlantic railroad in 1859 brought the railroad to Asheville, North Carolina at its northern end, and the time seemed ripe for more expansion.

The North Carolina & Atlantic railroad was founded in 1846, as a broad gauge railroad linking the North Carolina cities of Asheville and Fayetteville. Although hopes were high for the railroad, lack of access to a deep water port and its isolation as the only broad gauge line in the region would prove to cripple the regional player. Coal traffic from western North Carolina was enough to keep the railroad from bankruptcy, however its weak position prevented it from further expansion. After being acquired by the Carolina & Western in January of 1859, the C&W dual gauged the line from its connection in Perkins, North Carolina to Asheville, North Carolina, which was completed September of that year. The Fayetteville branch would remain broad gauge until after the Civil War, however.

The eruption of the Civil War put a halt to any further construction plans the road may have had in store. As resources were shipped to the front, the Carolina & Western became an important North-South link for the confederacy, and traffic levels on the line surged to new heights. However this early blessing came at a heavy cost. Several times during the war, the railroad came under attack by Union spies and insurgent groups. Two locomotives were sabotaged, and another derailed during the course of the war, putting a strain on an already weakened industrial system. Blockades against southern ports like Charleston severely hurt the railroad as well, and slowly the road’s cash reserves began to run dry. As the war progressed, and Confederate lines were pushed back farther and farther, the railroad soon found itself aiding the retreat of the remnants of Southern armies. As Sherman marched his troops to the Atlantic Ocean through the heart of the Confederacy, Union troops crippled the C&W to a point from which it would never recover.

-Ben
 
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talk about a chaotic and peaceful side of this company's history, this is one railroad I'll be watching closely.
 
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