John and Sue Ann
North Carolinia
We arrived in Salisbury at the North Carolina Transportation Museum at 2:35 pm. It’s a rather large installation with a great deal of train equipment on display, and even more awaiting restoration.
The Museum is located
on the 57 acre site
of what was once Southern
Railway Company's
largest steam locomotive
servicing facility.
J.P. Morgan, Southern's
owner, chose the site
because of its location
midway between the
railroad's major terminal
points of Washington,
D.C. and Atlanta,
Ga. Construction of
the Shops began in
1896, and they were
named in honor of
the first president
of Southern Railway,
Samuel Spencer. During
its peak, Spencer
Shops employed nearly
3,000 people, which
directly and indirectly
provided most of the
jobs for the towns
of Spencer, East Spencer
and other surrounding
Rowan County communities.
In September 1977, Southern
Railway donated four acres
of the site, including three
buildings, to the state
of North Carolina. A second
donation in 1979 included
several additional historic
structures. (From the N.C.
Trans. Museum web site.)
We were given directions to the location of the French boxcar by an older gentleman in the visitor’s center. When we first asked about the French boxcar, there was no recognition. Merci Train didn’t do it either. As soon as John said 40 et 8 Society, that rang a bell, and he knew just what we were talking about. Interesting note, we found no one who really knew anything about the history of the car, nor was there any display of information about the car. (Sue Ann: The volunteer thought that the French had sent the boxcars in gratitude for our liberating their country. He did not know anything about the food sent to France by the American people on The friendship Train nor the gifts sent back inside the French boxcars. Of course, we “gently” educated him as best we could…one more person now knows this story!)
This car had been moderately restored. Some of the wood had been replaced. There was some original wood left in the windows, but some dry rot was apparent. It had been painted and overall looked pretty good. Some metal pieces had been removed/lost. The province plaques varied from good to poor condition. Some had been replaced. The chassis was in fair shape but had a lot of rust showing through the paint. The floorboards may have been original, from the look of them on the underside.
We were hoping to look inside, but the volunteer couldn’t find the key to the lock. The boxcar is located in a building, which is good, but it needs some loving care.
After
viewing the boxcar,
we walked through
the very large locomotive
repair shops which
are now being used
for a display area
for locomotives,
passenger cars and
other old rail equipment.
(Sue Ann: Most interesting
to me was the Hospital
Car that had recently
been restored and
opened for viewing.
These cars were used
in WWII. Wounded soldiers
would arrive on the
east coast from Europe.
They would be separated
by where they needed
to go for further
treatment…there
were five different
routes to reach the
different regions
of the country. Each
Hospital Car had triple
bunks on both sides
of the car. Each car
had a doctor and some
nurses, depending
on how much care was
needed in that car.
The medical supplies
and food were brought
on board as they went
along their route.
2008-09-26 North Carolina & West Virginia 577