BY STEVE BARRY PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
I
N DECEMBER 2014 MY MOTHER decided to “snowbird” again in Flori- da. She wanted to fly down, but still wanted her own car to use in the Sun- shine State. The obvious solution was for me and my brother Bruce to drive her car down there for her (with some railfanning on the way, of course). Our first stop after leaving New Jersey was in Anderson, S.C., home of the Pickens Railway.
The Pickens opened between Easley
and Pickens, S.C., in 1898, and operated just on those ten miles of track for al- most a century. In 1991, as part of Nor- folk Southern’s Thoroughbred Short- line Program, the Pickens added NS’s line from Honea Path to Belton; it fur- ther added from Belton to Anderson in 1994. Meanwhile, traffic on the original Pickens had dried up, leaving only a lo- comotive rebuilder in the town of Pick- ens by 2002. Finally in 2013, the origi- nal Pickens was shut down and the rails removed.
Today’s Pickens is over 28 miles long. It interchanges with Norfolk Southern in Anderson, and also sends inter- change traffic to CSX via the Greenville & Western at Belton. A new shop has been built on the outskirts of Anderson, where a fleet of U18B locomotives are maintained. On December 13, we chased the Pick-
ens as it performed its daily duties. A pair of the U18B’s (built by General Electric and purchased second-hand from CSX) left the shop to work three large industries in the area. The loco- motives first ran light to the Owens Corning mill to pull one car out. The crew then dropped the one car at a (very) small yard not far from the shop, then took off up a branch to pull cars out of the Electrolux plant. A Michelin plant is located further up the line, but
rather than push the cars from Elec- trolux all the way up the branch, the crew returned to the small yard, dropped those cars, then headed back up to Michelin to pull cars from there as the final move.
Once done at Michelin, all the out-
bound cars were assembled and the train began its run to the Norfolk Southern interchange behind the “Baby Boats.” Okay, why are U18B’s called “Baby Boats?” When General Electric introduced its “Universal” line of diesels they were given a “U” prefix. As such, the entire line of locomotives became known as U-Boats. While most U-Boats were known as large work- horses, the U18B model was the small- est of the line. Thus, they became known as “Baby Boats.”
In downtown Anderson the train met the other job on the railroad, the one from Honea Path and Belton, which had a single U18B. The two trains shuf- fled cars around, with both leaving some cars for the Norfolk Southern and picking up some NS cars. Cars bound for CSX were handed to the Belton job, while the Belton job handed off cars from CSX bound for the industries west of town. Finally, everything was sorted out. Since the Belton job would be run- ning long-hood forward, we opted to chase the Anderson job back. Once it arrived at the small yard to work the industrial branches again, we doubled back and caught the Belton job arriving at the Greenville & Western inter- change. It dropped cars heading for CSX and, as it turned out, everything it brought from Anderson was CSX- bound. Only a light engine — running backwards, no less — would be contin- uing on to Honea Path. We opted not to chase, and instead headed south to- wards the Georgia coast.
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