Out of the Night

I remember it as though it were yesterday, when I was a youngster in my second year as a teenager.  I stood on the platform in early November.  The street lamps dimly lit the brick structure trimmed in dark green. I was at the railroad  depot waiting for the train along with my classmates from Northside Junior High School.  As an eighth grade student, I was going on a class trip to Washington, D.C.  My breath turned into steam in the early winter air. The crowd was buzzing with excitement.  And then it appeared, the Southern Crescent. It appeared almost as an apparition. Big, silver, and green with the "pissh" of compressed air escaping.  With the muffled sound of huge diesel engines like a herd of stampeding cattle ready to be unleashed on the prairie.

That was over half a century ago, but today I wished to relive the moment by finding that locomotive.  We arrived at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina, about 11 A.M.  According to the website train rides were available at 11, 1, and 2 respectively. After parking in the large parking lot we made our way into the train station. The station was built in 1898 in Barber Junction, NC, but moved to this location and renovated in 1996.  The ticket agent was quite helpful and gave us a map of the 57 acre museum after pointing out several features. I wasn't particularly interested in a train ride. (We'd ridden the train in Chattanooga  last year.) However, my better half wanted to.  Since this was primarily a "guy stuff" museum I said "OK".

We got our tickets and were waiting for the train when what seemed like all the elementary school children in the state appeared. I was about to voice my displeasure when I saw two tour busses drive into the parking lot, and, yes, they carried children as well. We boarded and went to the very last car, hopefully for a little solitude.  Our hopes were short lived. I don't think they'd taken their meds.  My wife and I did survive the train ride, which would have been more interesting had we been able to hear the guide's commentary about the Spencer Shops.  The museum encompasses the former repair shops of the Southern Railroad.

When we alighted from the train we noted that it was noon and most of the children and assorted parents, teachers, and others had gravitated to the picnic tables in a covered area near a large orange railway car.  As we passed them by we thought we may be able to visit some exhibits with some reasonable amount of quiet.

We saw collection of old wagons and buggies and such before seeing the antique automobile collection. I was surprised to see an old electric car, a 1913 Rauch and Lang, like the one I had seen at The California Automobile Museum in Sacramento.   I had thought they were extremely rare.  It was a nice collection, and I particularly liked the 1939 Ford race car. The little sedan reminded me of the cars I used to watch at the fairgrounds race track in the days of my youth. I liked the cars, but I was really interested in finding that big green and silver locomotive.

We made a dodge around the gift shop to a huge building.  It was a bit bigger than a two bull* Bi-Lo grocery store. This building was one of the biggest disappointments of our visit.  This large building, over 100,000 square feet, was visible only from a small area inside the entrance doors.  There were several airplanes, fire trucks, antique cars, and other forms of transportation, but you weren't allowed to get close enough to see any details.  This was very disheartening.

Next we saw the roundhouse. This surrounds the turntable on one side.  The turntable could turn the locomotives around and allowed them to be stored in various bays in the round house. This roundhouse has thirty-seven bays and is the largest still operational in the United States. I was getting excited.  Maybe the Southern Crescent locomotive was here!  We looked at the giant steam locomotives of the past. Steam power. These behemoths could reach speeds nearing one hundred miles per hour as they hurtled through the countryside on their steel roadways moving men and freight. I really enjoyed looking at the huge engines.  The controls of the engineers were simple in the cabs that operated these monsters, and to think, it was all about boiling water.

There were railcars on display.  Some were the opulent ones from the early twentieth century. Their parlors and bedrooms were like those of grand hotels of that era. There was a hospital car and a mail car as well as a caboose or two. But, alas, no big diesel locomotive. I looked carefully at the passenger cars of the 1950's.  Just maybe, I would find one like I traveled in.  One in which the most beautiful girl in the eighth grade rode.  The seat right behind mine. I think I stared at her for two hundred miles. But, I found no such passenger car.

We found ourselves  in a space with a reproduction of the Wright Brothers Flyer and assorted other exhibits. There was a huge diesel engine from a locomotive there. Unfortunately, it wasn't cutaway so that you could see the inner workings.  There was a piston beside it though. I was surprised at how small it was, about 8-10 inches in diameter. I thought it would have been at least as big as that of a diesel powered submarine.

Through another door we found the restoration shops.  This was about the time **blue million school kids came by. We stuck ourselves against the wall and let them scamper by with the adults in tow. There were about a half dozen locomotives in various stages of repair.  One big diesel was decked out in white and purple stripes.  Atlantic Coast line #501 was built in 1939.  But there was no Southern Railway #6900, the object of my quest.  According to the website it should have been there.  But I guess some things aren't meant to be.

It was a great visit, and we stayed about four hours before heading south., but not before  eating at "The Best Barbecue Place in Spencer".

*In South Carolina there is a chain of grocery stores named Bi-Lo.  Initially all stores had a fiberglass Hereford bull on the top of the store over the entrance. The largest stores had two bulls.  The smallest stores only had a bull's head over the entrance. Therefore, store size was equated to the number of bulls it had.

** too many to count 

A short video I made about steam.