The Carolina Piedmont Railroad is a

class III railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$5 ...

and subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. operating in the Upstate region of South Carolina. From an interchange with

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

at Laurens the railroad runs to the northwest, terminating at East Greenville. Primary commodities include plastic resins, gas turbines, wind turbines, food products, forest products, and chemicals with the railroad accumulating about 5,500 annual carloads in 2008. The railroad serves a

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

facility that provides a source of high value cargo for the line, shipping several gas and wind turbines via rail on an as needed basis.

History

What is now the Carolina Piedmont railroad began as the

Greenville and Laurens Railroad The Greenville and Laurens Railroad was a railroad that served the South Carolina Upstate region in the late 19th century. The Greenville and Laurens was chartered in 1878 and arrived in Greenville in 1882. In 1886, the line became part of the Po ...

, which was chartered in 1878 and arrived in Greenville in 1882. The railroad was later merged with three others in the region to form the

Port Royal and Western Carolina Railway The Port Royal and Western Carolina Railway (PR&WC) was a railroad company in the southern United States that operated on of gauge track. It was formed in 1886 by the merger of the Augusta and Knoxville Railroad, Greenwood, Laurens and Spartanbu ...

in October 1886. In 1896, the railroad was merged, this time with the

Port Royal and Augusta Railway The Port Royal and Augusta Railway was a South Carolina railroad that existed in the latter half of the 19th century. The Port Royal Railroad Company was chartered in 1856 and the line was completed in 1870. In 1873, the Georgia Railroad provided ...

to create the

Charleston and Western Carolina Railway The Charleston and Western Carolina Railway (C&WC) was formed in 1896 to operate the lines of the former Port Royal and Augusta Railway (PR&A) and the Port Royal and Western Carolina Railway (PR&WC). The PR&A and PR&WC had originally been part o ...

, and was promptly acquired by the Atlantic Coast Line in 1897. Additional mergers came in 1959, as the Charleston & Western Carolina was formally merged into the Atlantic Coast Line. The ACL was merged into the

Seaboard Coast Line The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...

in 1967, and the SCL was merged into the

Seaboard System The Seaboard System Railroad, Inc. was a US Class I railroad that operated from 1982 to 1986. Since the late 1960s, Seaboard Coast Line Industries had operated the Seaboard Coast Line and its sister railroads—notably the Louisville & Nashville ...

in 1983. The final merger came in 1986, when the Seaboard System was merged into CSX Transportation.

Shortline service begins

Annual carloads amounted to about 8,000 in 1988, which prompted CSX to sell the portion from Laurens to a point short of downtown Greenville to the Carolina Piedmont Railroad on November 5, 1990. A key factor in the sale was the fact that the line could not support intermodal or automotive shipments on account of low clearances. The railroad was operated as a division of the

South Carolina Central Railroad The South Carolina Central Railroad is a class III railroad that operates of former CSX Transportation trackage in South Carolina. Originally a RailTex subsidiary upon its start in 1987, the railroad passed to RailAmerica following their acquis ...

, a subsidiary of

RailTex RailTex was a transportation holding company that specialized in owning and operating short line railroads across North America. Based in San Antonio, Texas, the public company was a leader in making unprofitable lines shed by Class I railroads ...

. For the year 1995, about 6,000 annual carloads originated or terminated on the line.

Expansion and acquisition

In April 1997, the railroad acquired the

Greenville and Northern Railway The Greenville and Northern Railroad was a shortline railroad formerly operating between Travelers Rest and Greenville, South Carolina, . The railroad was part of the Pinsly Railroad Company after 1957 before being purchased by RailTex in 1997. ...

, running from Greenville to Travelers Rest for a distance of . The G&N was slated for abandonment, along with of track located at the end of the Carolina Piedmont near the Greenville Downtown Airport. However, on May 28, 1999, the railroad reached an agreement with the Greenville County Economic Development Corporation (GCEDC) to purchase both sections in their entirety. The Greenville & Northern was converted into the

Swamp Rabbit Trail The Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail is a multi-use rail trail in Greenville County, South Carolina, that largely follows the bed of a former railroad that had been nicknamed after the indigenous swamp rabbit. South-to-north the current trail be ...

walking trail after the GCEDC failed to find a new operator, while the southern portion was operated by the Carolina Piedmont under contract by the GCEDC and is primarily used for railcar storage. An additional change came in 2000 as the South Carolina Central's parent company, RailTex, was purchased by

RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it t ...

. Around the same time the railroad teamed with General Electric to upgrade rail infrastructure in order to accommodate heavy turbine loads originating from the Greenville facility. Heavier rail was installed, and significant upgrades to the ballast and roadbed were made. The railroad continued to operate under RailAmerica, hauling 5,529 annual carloads in 2008. until December, 2012 when RailAmerica was absorbed into the competitor Genesee & Wyoming company.

The Current CPDR

Locomotive Roster

CPDR currently owns 4 locomotives, all of which being some variant of the EMD GP38-2 Locomotive. CPDR GP38-2 2079: Build Date: 11/79: Ex-CPDR 3881 < CFE 3881 < NREX 3881 < née CNW 4613. CPDR GP38-2 2007: Build Date: 9/69: Ex-CPDR 3899, MTX 2659< LLPX 2740 < NS 2740 < née Sou GP38 2740. CPDR GP38-2 2149: Build Date: 10/74: Ex-NS 5158 < née CG/Sou 5158. GC (Georgia Central) GP38-3 2140: Build Date: 8/75: Ex NS 5171 < nee SOU 5171.

Day to Day Operations

Day Crew goes On Duty Monday thru Friday at Laurens Yard at 0:700. Begins building its train anywhere from 09:45 to 10:00, and has usually left by 11:00. The crew will then spend the rest of their day working local industries between Laurens and East Greenville, where they will run around their train to head south. After working a few more industries on the way south, the crew will tie down the train at Cryovac in Simpsonville and taxi back to their Depot in Laurens. Night Crew goes On Duty Monday thru Friday at Laurens Yard at 19:00. Crew taxis to the train the Day Crew tied down at Cryovac earlier, and begins to work the Cryovac Lead. After finishing at Cryovac, the train will proceed southbound to Laurens Yard, working more local industries along the way. Once arriving in Laurens Yard, they will put their cars in the proper tracks and tie down the locomotives next to the Depot. GE Turbine Specials run as needed. The On Duty times vary but the crew always starts at Laurens Yard. Depending on if the Turbine is going in or out of the plant, the crew can do one or two things. They can either pick up the Turbine if it’s in Laurens Yard and drop it off at the GE Plant in Greenville and running back to Laurens, or do the opposite by running to the GE Plant and picking the Turbine up. The crew may also do any extra work along with their Turbine related duties. CPDR Operates on AAR Channel 44 - 160.77000 MHz.

References

External links

Carolina Piedmont Railroad Official Webpage - Genesee & Wyoming website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carolina Piedmont Railroad South Carolina railroads Railway companies established in 1997 Switching and terminal railroads RailAmerica Spin-offs of CSX Transportation