Caboose Chases Train: Thieves Steal
Locomotive: Diapers Save Engineer’s
Life: and other adventures
On the Bob Train
«»/
lLYiULKON WILLIAMS
This is «he huff-by-huff and puff-by¬
puff chronicle of strenuous labor and
high adventure on a railroad whose
engineers worked up steam in the last
century, hitched onto the present,
coupled up the Carolines — then surg¬
ing onward in creeps and bounds, pro¬
duced a railway 109.3 miles long and
Зб'/г
inches wide. Eventually, there
came forth The Carolina A Northwest¬
ern Railway, now 1 20 years old.
Figurative steam was first generated
in the planning of this railway when
The Kings Mountain Railroad was
chartered at Cluster Courthouse, now
Chester. S. C. on December 19. IX4X.
By 1X52. engines belching pure pine-
knot fumes were careening on and off
the tracks and tugging coaches jammed
with venturesome tourists to the ter¬
minus. 10 mile distant Yorkville. now
York. S. C. Unhappily, the tracks
lacked exact continuity — a mile with
no tracks at all. Happily, passengers
were granted a respite from monoto¬
nous travel via horse-drawn vehicles
across the gap.
Within a decade, war was upon the
land, rails and plowshares were melted
into swords and cannon. Local rail¬
roading hibernated until 1X72, when
ambitious plans were made to put rails
into the wilds of North Carolina. To
cope with this expanded horizon, a
new corporation. The Chester A Le¬
noir Narrow Gauge Railroad, was
formed, and the enterprise became a
crusade.
Into North Carolina
By 1X76. rails were in North Caro¬
lina at Gastonia, four years later they
were in Lincolnton; within two more
years Newton and lliekory Tavern.
now Hickory, were reached with
tracks. By IXX4. Lenoir had been
added to the line: that city and Ches¬
ter, S. C. were joined by 109.3 miles of
approximately parallel lengths of iron.
(The Newton-Hickory rails were later
abandoned and replaced with a third
rail inside the Southern Railway's stan-
i6
dard guage tracks.) Thus ended the
completion of a railroad.
The C. A L. road went into receiver¬
ship in 1X93. and subsequently, a new
operating corporation was formed, the
presently titled Carolina & Northwes¬
tern Railway Company. It also became
expansion conscious with the purchase
of 12 miles of a lumber company's
tracks, west to Collcttsvillc and con¬
struction of 10 miles of track northwest
to Edgcmont. Then and there ex¬
pansion ceased: hut in 1903. the C. A
N. W. did the next best thing — it
expanded sideways, standard gauge
tracks were installed. Diesels were sub¬
stituted for steam in 1945.
The Bob Train
The C. A N. W. continues to render
vital service in the vast region reached
by its rails; but the old railway of the
yesteryears occupied a unique posi¬
tion; its rails formed the only practical
outlet to the outside world for many.
For them the old road became a sort
of family pet. esteemed and loved;
and even when trains were so late
these folks had recourse to calendars
instead of time pieces, oldtimcrs re¬
mained loyal. Furthermore, they would
get real scufflin' mad about that easy-
riding story, the one wherein a pas¬
senger allegedly complimented the
conductor on the smoothness of the
roadway — only to be told that the
train had been off the tracks for 300
feet.
High regard for the old road
eventually took an unusual turn
in bringing about a personalized
image of the system in the person
of passenger engineer Robert
(Bob) Smyre. Affable, friendly,
engineer Smyre was so well-known
and admired that the train he
piloted came to be called "The
Bob Train." In further time, the
name was generally applied to the
entire system. (Bob Smyre was
killed in a wreck at Chester a num¬
ber of years ago.)
Many of the road's old crewmen
have passed along stories of high ad¬
venture. of the good and the bad times
in their long-ago railroading lives on
the C. A N. W. The story is told of the
caboose that deserted, of joy-riders
who stole the engine, of the flood of
1916. of the unidentified burro, of the
freight train that was stranded for a
year — and others, including the saga
of diapers to the rescue. Life on the
Bob Train was not monotonous.
Sad to relate, but cabooses (Cabs
This old locomoti»c wos buill in 1875 ond pul into service on the C. ond l. Norro*» 6009c, ond wo*
used for 0 lime oflcr Ihc rood
«о»
rcorgonired os the C. ond N. W. Nolc engineer’s nome on side
of ihc cob, "A. C. Oo.ego" The photo, properly of Williom 8orficld, of 6ostonio, »os copied from
0 tinlype which wos ob»iously in poor condition.
THE STATE. May 1. 1969
