Video Virtual Tour
In 2022, the club had a video tour edited by Pilentum. There are two videos available:
Picture Virtual Tour
This Virtual Tour is organized to follow a typical day in August 1957 on the Western North Carolina Railroad (WNC). The tour begins in Spencer Yard near Salisbury, NC. The day’s operation begins with a WNC crew preparing two Southern Railway* diesel locomotives to pull a WNC passenger train, the Asheville Special, 138 miles to Asheville, NC. Along the way, visitors will see railroad operations and a variety of industries supported by the WNC in the towns of Majolica, Statesville, Clinchcross, Old Fort, Ridgecrest, and Swannanoa. The day will end in Asheville, where the crew will spend the night before starting tomorrow’s run back to Salisbury.
The NVMR layout’s track plan below shows Salisbury in the lower left corner and Asheville at the top. Beginning our tour at Salisbury’s Spencer Yard (the large yellow area across the bottom), our train will wind back and forth on many “scale” miles of track, through mountains and tunnels, passing towns with their rail yards and industries, until it finally pulls into Asheville’s yard.
Our first stop: Salisbury Station
* In the 1950s, The Southern Railway (SR) owned the WNC and it was not uncommon for SR equipment to be used on WNC runs. The WNC and SR met and exchanged cars at Southern’s Spencer Yard.