The America 250 Locomotive Celebration was an event at the North Carolina Transportation Museum where specially painted locomotives from all over North America gathered for three days of parades, fun, and unique photo opportunities to honor America’s 250th Birthday.
You can skip to the parts that interest you by clicking on the table of contents below.
- Getting There (Amtrak Piedmont #73)
- Museum Arrival
- Locomotive Photos at the Turntable
- Locomotive Photos around the Museum
- Other America 250 Exhibits
- Returning Home – Eventually
Getting There
After seeing on-line photos from Friday and Saturday, I decided to attend for the final day. Since I didn’t find anyone else interested in going, I used it as an excuse to take a train ride. At $46 round trip, it was an inexpensive treat, especially when you consider the price of gas.
Leaving Durham Video: Piedmont in Durham Video
Trains offer a little more legroom than airplanes. I’m not a tall person, but I could barely reach the footrest .
Another advantage of trains is the ability to wander from car to car.
The “Pamlico Sound” lounge had free self-service coffee, tea, and hot chocolate available along with tables with room for a laptop and lunch.
You can relax and see more while letting the engineer drive.
We stopped in Greensboro to pick up more passengers while an eastbound Norfolk Southern freight passed through on a parallel track.
Arrived in Salisbury on-time. Special for this event, a free museum shuttle bus picked us up for the three mile ride. With record crowds, we drove past packed remote parking and were dropped off at the entrance tent at the NC Transportation museum. I appreciated not having to hunt for a parking spot.
Disembarking from the shuttle we were greeted by locomotive 1776 from the Carolina Coastal Railroad. It was getting ready to haul a load of vintage passenger cars around the museum grounds.
Next up was this North Carolina America 250 Airstream Trailer. Volunteers were giving away soft frisbees and had games and history info for kids.
Heading deeper into the museum grounds we found the old Southern Railway car shop building with its iconic warning sign.
I chuckled seeing a new city park across the street has been built in the same style, but with a different message.
Past the car shops, a giant flag welcomed the crowd to the main event area.
On the other side of the flag, an amazing semicircle of locomotives were on display at the roundhouse.
Gathered around the turntable, locomotives from all over North America were all had unique paint schemes for America’s 250th birthday.
Locomotives took turns driving out onto the turntable. Like a horse show, each unit slowly spun 360ยฐ as an announcer shared facts about the home railroad and elucidated on the special features of each paint job.
Wheeling & Lake Erie #1776 being taken for a spin.
Note: 1776 was the most popular engine number, with 2026 as the runner up. Radio calls for loco 1776 could result in some confusion as I counted 16 locomotives sporting that designation.
Scroll on for a gallery of the locomotives at the historic 1924 roundhouse.
With over thirty locomotives in attendance, not all would fit on the roundhouse storage tracks. To the delight of railfans, many of the locos were running around the museum grounds. If you search YouTube you should be able to find videos of the locomotive parades that ended each day of the event.
Buffalo & Pittsburgh #4434 sported at Liberty Bell, complete with crack, as it passed by on the outermost track.
A gallery of some of my favorite moving participants…
My favorite discovery was this old Fairbanks Morse diesel sporting the initials of Beth and Mark Haskell!
For a short history of the locomotive, click on this link to a video produced by the museum. Would you believe it uses the same diesel engine as a World War II submarine?
Locomotive 1860 Video
Other Displays
Several groups had special displays inside the Car Shops.
Rail modelers were represented with working modular railroads set-up in HO, N, and Z scales.
This HO display even had a working miniature railroad running around a model fairgrounds.
An award wining tiny railroad was built inside this suitcase.
An impressive park size model was appropriately painted for the celebration.
Walthers displayed Models of several engines in America 250 paint schemes in N and HO scales. These will be available for purchase soon.
Norfolk Southern, in addition to bringing their locomotive #1776 gave away tote bags, wooden train whistles and stickers.
A real treat was meeting Andy Fletcher who was signing and giving away posters of his impressive hand drawn renderings of the America 250 locomotives.
To finish up the America 250 experience, I rode behind the Carolina Coastal Railway’s #1776 as it pulled happy attendees around the museum grounds. Captured an earlier run in this video: America 250 Train
Leaving the museum I found sad news for model railroad buffs. The “Little Choo Choo Shop” across the street is for rent. A hand written note on the door dated Sept. 14, 2024 said: “We are permanently closed. Thank you for your patronage over the years.”
Returning Home
After a bit of a snafu with the shuttle (it was scheduled to leave at 5:00, but left at 4:45) everyone made it to the station in time for Piedmont #76’s 5:41 departure. Once we were on the boarding platform, the station master asked us to gather around. He informed us there is a problem in Greensboro that might prevent the train from proceeding through Greensboro and gave us the option of not boarding. I opted to hop on and hope for the best.
The train was close to capacity, mostly with NC State students heading for Raleigh as the weekend drew to a close.
The end of the line for today
At High Point, the train stopped and the conductor announced that there was an active investigation into a shooting in Greensboro. Because it was near the tracks, trains were on hold in both directions. Drinks and food were available and the option to get off and walk around was open to all. The crew and staff handled the delay professionally. Unfortunately they didn’t know how long the delay would be, but told us that the train probably wouldn’t leave High Point until at least 11:00 PM. I texted with Beth and she jumped into the car to come “rescue” me.
Walking around the station area I found this statue and learned about the Plank Road.
THE PLANK ROAD FOREMAN
This statue of a Plank Road Foreman is dedicated to the establishment of the City of High Point and in honor of the men and women who worked in local industries and businesses that made it famous.
In the 1840’s and 1850’s construction was commenced on the 130 mile Plank Road from Fayetteville to Salem.
This intersection of the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road with the North Carolina Railroad resulted in a settlement that grew to become known as High Point.
Does anyone else think this looks like Roy Underwood from the Woodright show on PBS?
We arrived home at 7:15 without any troubles on the road.
The locomotive celebration was a unique event and I’m happy to have attended. For an old guy that remembers seeing the Delaware and Hudson Bicentennial engines roll by in 1976, it was a fun treat. Thank you to all that made it a success.
Postlude:
AMTRAK Travel Update: As of 10:14 PM ET, Due to ongoing track closure stemming from a municipal services extended hold on the tracks. Customers will received bus transportation between Burlington (BNC) and High Point (HPT). The remaining customers on board will be returning to their points or origins. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
I don’t know what time the students arrived in Raleigh, but they had a good excuse to be sleepy in Monday morning classes. Amtrak is refunding fares for all of the passengers, even though the delay wasn’t railroad related.
Unfortunately, a woman was shot in Greensboro. We hope she has a full recovery. For more on that story click on this local news story on WUNC.
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