Laurinburg & Southern RR Tamping machine - Railroad Maintenance-Of-Way Equipment on Waymarking.com

This is a waymark for this tamping machine used on the L&S tracks. This railroad is a short line railroad that was formerly owned by a local family. It was sold some time ago to other interest. I worked for the local family on this railroad as brakeman, flagman, and conductor for a couple of years. We ran approximately 27.6 miles from Raeford NC to Johns Station, NC. We had connections with the Aberdeen and Rockfish RR (A&R) in Raeford and the CSX at the Dixie siding in East Laurinburg. We serviced a few local industries such as Dixie Guano Fertilizer, LOF Glass (now Pilkinton Glass), JP Stevens, Rae Magnet Wire and Raeford Salvage. Those were some good times railroading. My most vivid memory of railroading was helping the A&R put together a 72 car cut of coal cars from Aberdeen to McCain, NC. We had to bring it up the hill to McCain and set it off in sidings 6 cars at a time. The grade of the hill from Aberdeen is the steepest on the east coast for freight trains (so I have been told). The A&R did not have enough power to bring all the cars at once, bringing 6 cars at time to siding was all the road engines could do. After all 72 cars were over the hill and on the other side of McCain, we built the train. It was then moved to Raeford were my four 70 ton GE switch motors were waiting. Jerry Lee my engineer, (one of the best ever) had been waiting, laying sand for about a mile to help us get started when we would head for home. Finally, our turn to pull was at hand. We coupled up, go the air right, pulled the throttle back and started moving. The deal was that we could not stop now until we reached Dixie siding in East Laurinburg or we would be stuck. Jerry Lee smiled and gleamed as we slowly got up speed. Every body from the shop hands to the track crew were covering the crossings. We had free run to Laurinburg. Jerry Lee kept the throttle all the way open until we reached the cemetery just north of Larinburg. Once we topped the hill there, it was down hill all the way to Dixie. He shut down the throttle and the coal shoved us 4 miles to Dixie. I stood on the front of the motor most of the way to accept the crossing from the flagger on the crossing. I remember the way the wind from our speed had the legs of my jeans taut in the like a flag on a windy day. WOW, what a ride. Once headed for Dixie, Jerry Lee judicially applied the air brakes so we did not run through the switch at the east end of Dixie. Once at Dixie, you could hear the throbbing of the CSX motors waiting their turn to pull this cut of coal. Man railroading is ball.

Is this a display or a maintenance facility location?: Maintenance Facility Are there any fees and if so how much? (optional): none, if you go to the shop they will probably let you look around Website about this MOW waymark. (optional): [Web Link] Additional site related to the MOW category. (optional): Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/20/2010 NCDaywalker visited it