Southern Railway- Saluda Grade Training Video

Mr. Warren just recently passed away. R.I.P. Melvin, you are a legend.

I had a family member who worked for the Southern Railway during the flood of 1916 and he saved a passenger train by sending it up the runaway track near Saluda. The engineer wasn’t very happy that he sent his train up that runaway track, but he told him that the bridge at Melrose was washed out and he just saved his life and the lives of the passengers.

Rest in peace Melvin Warren. You will be missed.

I love these old videos. I wish i was rail Fanning when the grade was active. The old Richmond & Virginia Airline track ran behind my house in Greenville, South Carolina. It was used for the concrete plant when i was a kid.

I’ve got a pre-abandonment timetable with this mainline still in it. No less than five pages were devoted solely to detailed instructions on how to run trains up/down Saluda. It was an absolute nightmare. Sadly, that was the very reason it had to be abandoned. I’m still amazed it lasted as long as it did.

when they were running dash 9's on this thing, they thought they could just run a train up the mountain without having to split it. That didn't work out like they thought it would. Down the hill, they ran about the same.

I was looking at the route on Google Maps midway through this video and found that the building at 19:48 is labeled as "Melvin Warren's Office". Rated 4 stars with 3 reviews!🤣

I'm a die hard southern fan!! The main line that runs from Washington to Atlanta ran through where I grew up at dryfork va at the 223 milepost. I worked for my cousin who was a contractor to ns when I started helping him. Loved these old high hoods, and love the paint and markings on these locomotives!! Southern railway was a very strong railroad for the territory it covered!! Mygreat uncle was a detective for southern railway. He was stationed out of Knoxville Tennessee. Worked for them from 41 to 79 his name was Vernon Jones.

Pete Widner is the General Foreman electrical geru that came up with the Saluda Mtn. Switch project. I installed many of the projects. It kept the PC pressure switch from cutting out Dynamic Brake. THANKS FOR POSTING this documentary. It brought back memories. I was never on one of the runs but I worked on those locomotives like they were my own kids.

There was a very in-depth article in TRAINS Magazine many years ago devoted to Saluda. It was written by an engineer fireman who worked tje territory. The safety tracks were the suggestion of an engineer named Pit Ballew who survived a horrific runaway

My great grandfather Weston Pace worked as a switch man on the grade from the 20s to the 50s. Back then you sat in a switch house and the tracks stayed on the run away spur until the train signaled all was good and then it was switched to the main line. He walked 5 miles one way to the switch house. His wife Fanny Mae Pace once saved a train by running up the grade and flagging it down after discovering a rock slide on the tracks while taking him lunch.

Always use your Special Saluda Key.

Born and raised in a Southern Railway family. My Grandfather was a switch man at Norris Yard in Birmingham for 30 years. SR for ever!

I was there in the late 2000's. The rails were quite rusty, hadn't seen trains in many years. Looking down the tracks at Saluida and up the tracks at Melrose gives a sense of the very steep grade of this line, nothing like I have seen before.

I want - no, i NEED more videos like this

being from the area, its crazy to see how much the railroad really drove saluda. it once was a bustling little town. now, its a sad shell of what it used to be. hanging on to the hopes that one day the trains will return...

MAN I love the 80s safety music.

I didn't realize how much work they do. Very cool video.

Saluda at its finest!

R.I.P. Melvin Warren.