| Acronym | Year Chartered or Incorporated | Year Line Operational | Year Service Ended | Original Starting Point | Original Ending Point |
| WSRR | 1905 | 1905 | 1985 | Shoals Junction, SC | Ware Shoals, SC |
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| Built and owned by Southern Railway. Tracks removed 1987.
In the northern part of Greenwood County a textile center developed at Saluda River shoals. Nathaniel Dial of Laurens County and six other investors began construction of a textile mill to be operated by a hydroelectric power station, but they soon encountered financial difficulties. They persuaded Benjamin Riegel of New York to invest in the project. Riegel moved to South Carolina, completed the mill, and built the model town of Ware Shoals for his workers. The Ware Shoals Railroad was a short line connecting the town of Ware Shoals, SC, to the Southern Railway and the Piedmont & Northern Railway (later Seaboard Coast Line) at Shoals Junction, SC. The train carried goods to and from the textile mill located in Ware Shoals, but its main use was the transportation of coal. The railroad was built in 1905 by the Southern Railway, which supplied locomotives to operate the line with during the steam era. By the late 1950s, the railroad dieselized with a single ex-Southern General Electric 44-ton locomotive, numbered 1955. The railroad ceased operations in 1985 when the textile mill begin to curtail operations. Trackage was pulled up in 1987. |
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M&MC Diamond
It has been said that a diamond is a girl’s best friend. Well I can tell you that it is not a model railroader’s best friend, especially when it is a custom curved build from scratch variety. I have no clue how many hours I have into it nor do I want to know, but I am pleased to say it is finally complete.
Now back to more trackwork of the normal variety.
Mike C.
Starting August 12, 2014 Mike Costello’s Massachusetts & Maine Coast Railroad comes alive ! Welcome to the list of hosts Mike.
M&MC RR Nov 2013 Update
The contruction crews on the M&MC RR have been working overtime lately. Below are some pictures.
Except for the engine service area this end of the yard is complete.
Since the August viewing a new peninsula has appeared.
East end of Biddeford. Lower staging entrance visable on the right.
West end of Biddeford. Lower staging yard is visible on the left.
Staging yard tracks 1-10.
Staging yard tracks 11-20.
Ossipee cutoff from main line to staging.
Staging yard entrance. The reversing loop climbs up and over the staging yard.
The 2-8-2 that wouldn’t run
The saga of the Mike
Recently I bought a Mike’s Train House 2-8-2 from an estate. I had previously witnessed this locomotive in action on the Atlantic Shoals Railway and found it virtually unusable! The Loco was purchased for, are you ready, $438.95, I picked it up for $100.00 thinking it would be a good project to make it a good puller and stay on the tracks. Following is a list of flaws and how I fixed them:
The locomotive stalled due to poor electrical pick up.
The tender had good eight wheel pick up but the locomotive has a strange method of getting power to its drivers. Instead of wipers each driver is equipped with a pin emerging from the frame and pushing on the inside of the driver. Three of the pins did not move far enough out of the frame to touch the drivers.
The solution: add .008 phosphor bronze wire wipers. Time consumed four hours.
The front driver constantly derailed on curves and turnouts
This was due to the issue of a high number three wheel set (equipped with a traction tire and also the power driver connected to the worm gear on the motor) causing the locomotive to rock. There was more weight distribution on the rear of the engine causing the lead driver to ride off the rails. All drivers are fully sprung.
The solution was twofold. First I removed the traction tire driver and found that the tire was not seated properly on either side. I carefully stretched the tires and they easily fit into the slot on the drivers. Test running showed that the front driver was still derailing! Examining the drivers indicated that the rear driver was down on its springs causing the lead two drivers to still ride high. This problem was fixed by removing the rear driver and its suspension springs and blocking the void with brass blocks (very small brass blocks) causing the bearing blocks to be permanently even with the bottom of the frame. I also added weight to the front on the pilot under the boiler. Time consumed six hours.
The locomotive would only pull three cars up my grades.
Setting the locomotive aside I now looked over the tender. The trucks were free rolling, at least as much as the pickup wipers would allow. I then took the tender body off the frame, a simple task. Wow, the tender body was diecast and weighed as much as an entire eight car (my standard limit for single engines) train.
The solution was to replace the heavy metal tender body with a plastic one. It so happens that I had another tender from another locomotive that was a perfect match. I have since purchased a replacement on EBay for small money. Time consumed four hours.
Headlight to bright
There seems to be no solution as MTH is very protective about how they equip locomotives and don’t list the CVs necessary to make the change. They also seem to be full of themselves, just read the manual!
The bottom line is: I had all the material except the extra tender body and I had fun making over this locomotive which now operates nearly perfectly.
Model railroading is, indeed, fun.
Carl
