Spencer and Salisbury NC

On one of the afternoon outings, Lela and I went to Spencer to see the North Carolina Museum of transportation.  It is located in the old Southern railroad locomotive shops.  We went to the station to buy our tickets and this engineer road up with a small passenger consist pulled by a Norfolk Western GP 9.  He asked us if we would like a ride up to the roundhouse.  We said yes of course.

 Here is the GP in its wine red colour.

 He invited us to ride in the cab.  Here is Lela in the brakeman seat.

 The roundhouse and turntable is operational and  is the largest surviving in the USA.

 It was sure nice to ride in the Geep.

 They did all their major shop work and the local railroad society volunteers to run the place.

 They have lots of vintage vehicles at the museum.

 How about the colours on this E unit.

 Here is the classic southern railroad passenger scheme

 Now this was a nice little 0-4-0

 The museum had an N Scale replica of the whole Southern railroad complex.

 Sure would have been great to get a tour of this facility when it was fully operational

 It was nice modelling as well.

 The shop building was magnificent.

 Nice to see a US Navy switcher.

 I love the paved track area.

 You could ride the turntable for $1.00

 Also there was an opportunity to drive the locomotive for 1 hour.  For a price of course.

 Classic locomotives look so traditional in black and white.

 The tracks run between the shops.

 This little GE unit was on display near the parking lot.

 In Salisbury we stopped at the AMTRAK station which is on the NS main.  This town would have been a trip in it self as there were lots of trains going by...of course....while we were at the museum.  Also the vintage buildings and signage was a plus.

 Drink Cheer Wine

 Coke for 5 cents.  Relieves fatigue:)

We stopped at a crossing on the way back to Hickory as the lights were flashing on the cross-bucks.  I jumped out of the car, with camera ready, just in time to catch this eastbound with high nose Geep 50's leading the way.  My next post will be of some of the action on the convention floor.  Stay tuned.