Started with another overcast day, headed north to Old Salem, located within Winston-Salem. More on that later, as I-85 was so clogged up halfway there, we made a u-turn and headed south to Salisbury. It's a cute little town, with a cute main street. We learned that there in the neighboring town of Spencer was located the North Carolina Transportation Museum. Earlier that morning (on the way to Old Salem) Ivan and I joked that it was probably going to be a couple of buses, but it was more denial than anything else. As stated before, my brother and I are total geeks and when we found out there there was an old steam locomotive roundhouse amidst the museum, we hightailed it there.
To picture the roundhouse, imagine a huge shed with a half-circle cut out of one side. In the middle of that half-circle is a huge turntable, with 37 tracks leading into 37 different sheds. It's absolutely amazing. Turns out that Southern Railway (motto - Southern Railway Serves the South, click here for logo) established this repair/roundhouse exactly halfway between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. Spencer was the last name of the first president of Southern Railway and this whole town was built around this industry. Long story short, diesel engines killed the roundhouse, but it lives on with this museum and the fabulous employees and volunteers that work within it, including Tip (see photo).
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