Southern Railway Historical Association

10/22/2026

Southern Railway began dieselizing in 1939, when six diesel-electric railcars, assembled by St. Louis Car Company and powered with five-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse engines, were delivered. Numbered 1-4, and AGS 40-41, each motor car contained baggage and mail sections, were mated with coaches of light construction, and were painted an attractive green and silver. Intended to replace steam on local passenger trains, they were initially successful. In this view, the Joe Wheeler, powered by motor No. 2, is receiving orders from operator-leverman W. L. Ford at Wauhatchie, Tenn., on a spring day in 1940. Running as Memphis Division train 7, the train has just left Chattanooga on the Alabama Great Southern and is about to enter 33 miles of trackage rights over the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis to Stevenson, Ala. on the way to its final destination, Tuscumbia, Ala.

Walter Newton photo, Louis M. Newton collection

10/21/2026

Update: we’re back online!

SRHA.net will be offline for roughly the next day for maintenance.

10/19/2026

The Second Quarter Ties Magazine is hitting mailboxes now. Despite delays, Ties Magazine is back and mailed to members.
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In this issue, we are celebrating America's 250th anniversary by reflecting back on the 100th and 200th anniversaries by highlighting what the Southern and its predecessors did during those events. Plus, we start to celebrate the Southern Railway steam program's 60th anniversary (more on that to come later!).

Not a member? Simply join on our website to ensure you don't miss upcoming issues!

Southern E8 6903 snakes the southbound Southern Crescent out of Atlanta, passing the Atlanta Water Works northwest of downtown in January of 1977. 6903 is still wearing its Bicentennial decals for now, but it would not be too far into 1977 before they were removed.
Frank Greene Photo

10/17/2026

Pre-Ordering is Now Available for a Limited Time to get your 2027 SRHA Calendar! Just like last year, you can choose a wall size or desk size! There is also a bundle option! Pre-ordering is open through November 25th. Shipping will take place in early December!

srha.net/grab-store/srha-2027-calendar/

07/31/2026

If you're visiting the National Train Show this weekend in Chattanooga be sure to stop by Booth #404! We'll be set up with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Historical Society!

07/18/2026

06/14/2026

Congratulations on your 130th anniversary N.C. Transportation Museum!

Another tidbit of history, Coster Shop in Knoxville was built as its twin to the exact same drawings as Spencer Shops for many of the buildings and handled the same maintenance and repair for the Central and Western Lines on the Southern, including a full fabrication shop for new boilers.

Spencer Shops is celebrating 130 years in 2026, having officially opened during August 1896. The Southern Railway was formed in 1894 from the Richmond and Danville and Piedmont Air Line routes, naming Samuel Spencer as their first president. One main objective of his was to construct a new steam locomotive and car repair facility between Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA. The original North Carolina Railroad Company Shops located in Burlington, NC, was too small and could not adequately service modern steam locomotives.

The farmland between Salisbury and the Yadkin River was the halfway point between those two major cities, exactly 300 miles in either direction. The Southern Railway acquired approximately 300 acres, breaking ground during 1895. Construction of the major buildings occurred between 1895 and 1905, first with the original boiler shop, woodworking and blacksmith shops. The 600-foot-long back shop was completed in 1905, soon followed by the first roundhouse in 1915.

The main focus of Spencer Shops was the repair and overhaul of steam locomotives, freight and passenger cars, and the care and feeding of livestock. A freight yard was constructed beside the car repair shed for service across North Carolina. This continued into the 1940s, when diesel locomotives began to slowly replace steam through 1952. Eventually the Southern Railway decided to move all heavy locomotive repair to Atlanta,
Chattanooga and other smaller shops in 1960. Only the freight yard continued to operate until replaced by Linwood (New Spencer) Yard in 1979.

The museum has created an expanded look at this important anniversary on the main website, which can be accessed from this link: https://www.nctransportationmuseum.org/learn/spencer-shops-130th-anniversary/

Follow the lead of this switch crew, seen on September 13, 1947, and learn about Spencer
Shop’s history while taking a coffee break!

05/23/2026

We were proud to contribute to Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s restoration (sponsored by ScaleTrains) of the Southern 4501 back to its excursion era green.

We provided paint color and lettering diagram information as well as reference images and consulting to support an authentic appearance of the locomotive from its time in green between 1966 and 1996. Paint colors were matched to paint swatches from 1968 as well as samples from the original tender tank.

SRHA is always proud to assist its partners in preservation.

05/09/2026

Happy National Train Day! Enjoy the day safely along the rails!

The Crescent, led by E8A 6904, makes its scheduled station stop in Atlanta at Peachtree Station on a clear December day in 1972.

David W. Beach Photo

04/25/2026

SRHA now over 7700 followers on Facebook! Thank you all for your support and continuing to enjoy, comment on, and share our posts. We are so happy that so many of you all are fans of the Southern Railway and seeing all the railroad history that we share.

We want to challenge all our followers. While we have this many followers, help share and like and follow our page to get us to 8000 followers. But more importantly, to help us keep sharing this material, we would love for many of you to consider becoming SRHA members. Our member count is at 630 members and we would love to have many more of you become members.

SRHA has several membership tiers all including our quarterly TIES Magazine, where we share so many more interesting stories from the Southern. Sustaining memberships help to contribute to the archives and helps us to preserve our Southern Railway historical materials for generations to come. Please see the link in the comments or our profile to join today!

Southern 630 leads a 21st Century Steam Program excursion through Rising Fawn, GA heading back to Chattanooga after a trip to Attalla, AL on November 09, 2013.

Allyson Shannon Photo