Power To Spare In 1973, Raleigh was still a division headquarters. True, the merger had figuratively taken the steam out of the place, but the dispatchers still ran the railroad from the original CTC control panels in the office building downtown, and there were enough locals and yard jobs to keep hostlers busy at Johnson Street. I was working at WPTF radio from 1973-76, and used every excuse to end up at the Seaboard/Amtrak Station on Seamart Drive, next to the campus of Peace College. Assistant Superintendent, Mr. K. K. Kitts, sold me my first good camera on a visit to his office in Rocky Mount in 1973, a Canon FTb. It had a 1.4 normal lens, to which I added a telephoto for variety. Sundays were good days to railman for me. I worked a half day on the air on Saturdays and had Sundays off. When we werent visiting my family in Richmond, or camping at Kerr Lake, Id pick a spot and wait. This particular Sunday, power for the locals (which didnt operate on weekends) had just been returned from Hamlet, where they were swapped out, serviced and inspected. No. 214 had brought them back to Raleigh and left them at Johnson Street, awaiting hostlers to uncouple the GP7s from a protect GP40 through freight unit, so with the Holiday Inn in the background, I made good use of a roll of black and white. And Im glad I did. Almost 40 years later, as far as the old Seaboard goes, Raleigh is a ghost town. Those CTC control boards are in the NC Museum of Transportation, the track hardly goes north of Henderson, the passenger station is a garden supply center, and most of what had been Raleigh Yard has been sold to NCDOT and is used to take care of the Piedmont equipment and power. I think the Holiday Inn is still there though, although it belongs to someone else. The Geeps are scrap (as likely is the ex-SAL GP40 in the photo.) I enjoyed my time in Raleigh. Came back there as a trainman and later an engineer. I worked the last Amtrak train to stop at the old station on Seamart Drive. My son now runs the Silver Star and Carolinian from Richmond to the capitol of the old north state, but comes into town from Selma and pulls up to the former Southern depot on Cabarruss Street. Hardly seems possible that so much change can take place in 40 years, but it obviously does. Wonder whos name is going to be on the Holiday Inn forty years from now?
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 06:50:34 +0000
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