Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-01-28
The c. g. NV.

The following interesting article
about the c. G. NV. railroad was
written by DR.. r. Woods Brown for the
Hickory Democrat:
| The Carolina and North Western
railroad is one Of the oldest railroads
In the south. 1t was begun in 1853 as
narrow gauge from Chester, S. c.,
to Yorkville. S. c., and was then known
as the Kings Mountain railroad. In
1898 1t took its present name, C. &,
NV. During 1902 1t was made stand
ard gauge from Chester to Yorkville
from Lenoir to Newton, August II,
1902; from Newton to Gastonia, Sep
tember II, 1902, and from Gastonia to
Chester, February 81, 1903.
The Caldwell & Northern Narrow
Gauge was purchased and the ten miles
from Lenoir to Collettsville was stand
| ardized during 1904 and the extension
to Edgemont thirteen miles, was built
standard gauge. Traffic on this extern
sion, was commenced as far as Nor
| timer April 5 1905, and to the termin-
] us Edgemont, during the fall Of the
| same year, a distance of 1876 miles from
| Chester with over forty towns and viii
lagos. The. C. & NV. railroad has
within two months purchased two
modern freight engines, and are now
having built two more mogul freight
and two large passenger locomotives,
all at total cost Of $4,000. There are.
over 500 employees on the pay roll, and
the officials have just moved into spa
cious offices in the Pryor building op-
posite the Chester town hall.
1t requires forty-f1ve Office employees
to handle the increasing business of
the c. & NV. railroad, the headquar-
ters Of which have been in Chester, for
over 26 years.
The history of the Kings Mountain
railroad dates from 1852. From that
time until 1902 1t was a narrow gauge
three feet six inches and used 50-pound
chair-rails imported from England and
at that time they were the heaviest
rail south of the Ohio river. A So
pound rail means that every three feet
Of the rail weighs fifty pounds. Only
one side Of this pear shape chair rail
could be used next to the wheel fiange,
the opposite side Of the rail being
square, therefore not reversible. These
rails had round holes drilled through
the web and a round spike fastened
them to a stringer which was parallel
to and under the rail, as this was a
time before cross ties were used. Every
five feet Of the stringer was laid in a
slot Of the cross tie and fastened with
wooden wedges.
With this rail was made the first at
tempt in fastening rails together so
as to attain smooth alinement at the
ends of the rails. This was done by
means Of a chair, from which this rail
got its name, chair rail, this chair was
made from a piece Of metal three
eights inch thick, seven inches wide
and nine inches long. Part Of the sides
of this metal was bent up so the ends
of the rails could be slid into the
grove Two spike holes on each un-
bent side Of the chair enabled 1t to be
fastened to the stringer, this was the
first step towards the modern rail fish
plate. I examined eight inches of this
original chair which was used on
the Kings Mountain railroad from 1852
until the c. & NV. railroad changed
from narrow to standard gauge OF four
feet eight and half inches, in 1902.
Eight miles of this rail between Guth-
ries and Yorkville was taken up and
laid on a South Carolina railroad to re-
place rails destroyed by Sherman's ar
my on its march to Georgia and after
the war was brought back and again
laid on the Kings Mountain railroad.
The c.. & NV. has inaugurated a
package car service from Charlotte via
Gastonia north, from Lenoir south via
Gastonia to Charlotte daily. On con-
nection with the Piedmont Northern 1t
also operates package cars tri-weekly
from Charlotte to Cherte, and interme-