Graham County Railroad Company [1]

Graham County Railroad Company

by James Wrinn, 2006 [2]

The Graham County Railroad Company [4] was one of dozens of logging railways built in North Carolina in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Constructed over steep grades through the Nantahala Mountains [5] between Topton and Robbinsville in 1925, this 12.6-mile line was one of the nation's last railways to use steam locomotives before it shut down in 1970. Bible-quoting, hymn-singing engineer Ed Collins ran the train for almost 40 years. The last run of the Sidewinder, a specially designed geared steam locomotive prized for its strength and agility, was covered by TV newsman Charles Kuralt [6]. The railroad's original locomotive, No. 1925, is preserved at the North Carolina Transportation Museum [7] in Spencer.

Additional Resources:

North Carolina Digital Collections [8] search results for Graham County Railroad Company

Image Credit:

"Brand new Graham County Railroad Company's Shay/ Number 1925 stands outside the Lima Locomotive Works/ factory in Lima, Ohio in February, 1925." Image available from the North Carolina Historic Sites. Available from http://collections.ncdcr.gov [9] (accessed June 19, 2012).

Subjects:

Gilded Age (1876-1900) [10]

N.C. Industrial Revolution (1900-1929) [11]

Businesses [12]

Railroads [13]

Transportation [14]

UNC Press [15]

Authors:

Wrinn, James [16]

Origin - location:

Graham County [17]

From:

Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. [18]

1 January 2006 | Wrinn, James