Two aspects of railroading that may cease to exist in the future.
Running on an as-needed basis, a loaded Belmont coal train swings under the Southern era intermediates at Lowell. With the age of modernity and PTC, the aluminum boxcar frame signal bridge is nearly one-of-a-kind. Likewise, with the coal train, talks of natural gas conversion loom to shut down coal traffic into and out of Belmont. How things have changed from the daily SOU 270s down Saluda, to the less frequent movements down the S-Line from Asheville to Salisbury, now to a rare movement MAYBE once a month straight down the Piedmont.
