Eastern Railroad Discussion > Train action Mooresville, NC

What is the train action around Mooresville, NC. I will be visiting relatives sometime soon and just wanted to spend a couple hours on a Saturday morning photographing some trains. Any specific areas to go. Types of trains, symbols, etc.. would be of great hell

Thanks

Posted from Android

In Mooresville itself, not much. But you're only 40 minutes from Charlotte. The ex-Southern main line between Charlotte and Greensboro is very busy. Another good choice is the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer, also about 40 minutes from Mooresville.

Charlotte area is good, but if you're in Mooresville,  then Salisbury ( on the same NS mainline, 40-ish miles RR north ) is marginally closer, and a much easier ( much less suburban congestion ) drive. The area around the station and Asheville line wye is photogenic. Plus you're only a couple of miles away from Spencer with the RR museum at the old Spencer shops; a must see. Just RR north of Spencer has some good train watching spots as well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/20 10:51 by NYC_L4a.

any idea of what trains(symbols) and aprox times in these areas.

Thanks for your help

This has a list of trains in/out of the yard at Linwood (north of Spencer):

http://www.jreb.org/ns/index.php/topic,15193.msg54809.html?PHPSESSID=763458c4ec361ccc355701847d3f82ea#msg54809

There are 4 pairs of intermodals on the NS main: 203/204, 211/212, 213/214, 217/218

Neil



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/20 13:06 by SOUCF25.

ctillnc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In Mooresville itself, not much. But you're only
> 40 minutes from Charlotte. The ex-Southern main
> line between Charlotte and Greensboro is
> very busy. Another good choice is the NC
> Transportation Museum in Spencer, also about 40
> minutes from Mooresville.

I wouldnt call the Charlotte-Greensboro line very busy. For the last two years I have railfanned the line between Kannapolis and Linwood 14 days, during two 10-12 day vacations. These were 7-8 hours trackside each day, and the NS train count was under one train per hour average overall. There were only 2-3 days where it had over one NS train per hour. Of course there are the passenger trains but after a couple days they loose their luster.

Posted from iPhone

It's all relative and PSR has changed the benchmarks. If you're looking for 40+ trains a day, the only place in the southeast you're likely to find that is NS between Austell and Inman Yard. Not even Folkston has that kind of train frequency any more. NS Charlotte-Greensboro including the Amtraks is probably in the 30 range. Most of the freight now runs at night. 

ctillnc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In Mooresville itself, not much. But you're only
> 40 minutes from Charlotte. The ex-Southern main
> line between Charlotte and Greensboro is
> very busy. Another good choice is the NC
> Transportation Museum in Spencer, also about 40
> minutes from Mooresville.

For those interested, here's the scheduled trains on that stretch:

•intermodal (all run the entire way between Charlotte and Greensboro)
203 Rutherford, PA - Atlanta, GA Tu-Sa
204 Atlanta, GA - Rutherford, PA Tu-Sa
211 Croxton, NJ - Atlanta, GA Tu-Su
212 Atlanta, GA - Croxton, NJ Tu-Su
213 Rutherford, PA - Atlanta, GA daily
214 Atlanta, GA - Rutherford, PA Tu-Su
217 Charlotte, NC - Chicago Calumet, IL Mo-Th, Sa
218 Chicago Calumet, IL - Charlotte, NC daily

•manifest (between Linwood and Charlotte)
118 Macon, GA - Linwood, NC daily
119 Linwood, NC - Macon, GA daily
153 Linwood, NC - Birmingham, AL daily
154 Birmingham, AL - Linwood, NC daily
191 Linwood, NC - Macon, GA daily
192 Macon, GA - Linwood, NC daily

•manifest (between Linwood and Greensboro)
134 Roanoke, VA - Linwood, NC daily
165 Linwood, NC - Roanoke, VA daily
194 Bellevue, OH - Linwood, NC daily
195 Linwood, NC - Bellevue, OH daily
12R Linwood, NC - Enola, PA daily
13R Enola, PA - Linwood, NC daily
349 Selma, NC - Linwood, NC daily
350 Linwood, NC - Selma, NC daily
351 Winston-Salem, NC - Linwood, NC daily 
352 Linwood, NC - Winston-Salem, NC daily

•locals (between Linwood and Greensboro)
P02 Linwood, NC - High Point, NC turn Mo-Sa
P05 and P08 are also High Point based locals.

And there's the 10 daily Amtrak trains between Charlotte and Greensboro.
19, 20 Crescent 
73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78 Piedmont Service
79, 80 Carolinian

There are occasional unit trains of coal, grain, and ethanol.

Andrew

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/20 05:33 by florida581.