For the first time since Helene, a train passes through NC's Old Fort Loops
It’s been a long time since a crowd of people gathered at the center of this small town at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains to watch a train pass by. But this was no ordinary train.
The Norfolk Southern freight train that rumbled into Old Fort on Saturday morning was the first since Hurricane Helene ravaged Western North Carolina more than a year and a half ago. More than 200 residents and rail fans from around the region came to see the 59-car train hauling a hodge-podge of goods, including rolls of paper, cement, plastic pellets and hops and barley malt bound for Asheville breweries.
Residents and rail fans from throughout the region gathered in Old Fort on Saturday, April 18, to welcome the first Norfolk Southern freight train to pass through town since Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Photo credit: Norfolk Southern
Lamar Hicks and his 12-year-old son Parker came out to cheer the return of trains that pass near their house in Old Fort.
“Trains are just part of our culture,” said Hicks, an Old Fort native who works as a nurse at the local hospital. “It’s great that they’re able to come back through again. We were afraid after the flood that it was going to be over, after seeing the devastation. It’s like the town’s coming together again.”
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https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article315435595.html
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...........The straight-line distance up the mountain from near Old Fort to Swannanoa Gap is about 3 miles; the Old Fort Loops, as this section of railroad is known, twists and turns for 9 miles before emerging from the final tunnel at Ridgecrest. Norfolk Southern’s engineers used drones equipped with LiDAR lasers to map the route and compare it to LiDAR data it had collected before the storm. The railroad and its contractors trucked in 140,000 tons of stone to rebuild washed-out rail bed and shore up embankments and nearly 52,000 linear feet of steel for new retaining walls. Alan Johnson, Norfolk Southern’s chief engineer for design and construction, said the railroad built new and more durable retaining walls and other structures that will make this section of track more resilient during the next storm. The line is used to serve local customers, primarily between Asheville and Hickory, with one train a day in each direction, said David Lehlbach, the assistant vice president for strategic planning. Some of those customers haven’t been able to ship or receive goods since the storm, because trucks can’t handle such heavy loads.........................
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