Railroading Train Watching Norfolk Southern’s Saluda Grade

Norfolk Southern’s Saluda Grade

By Kevin Gilliam | March 28, 2023

Retrospective of a humbling 4.7% mainline climb

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The famous Saluda grade in western North Carolina has seen its last train. Railbanked in December 2001, nature has slowly but ever so surely reclaimed the right of way. Now, in 2023, an agreement has been reached to sell the railroad to become a hiking trail. Let’s take a look back to the years when Norfolk Southern operated the nation’s steepest mainline railroad grade.

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