Take a Ride Through the History of Spencer Shops in New Book

July 18, 2011 - PRLog -- The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Southern Railway’s Historic Spencer Shops from local author Larry K. Neal Jr., with a foreword by Jim Wrinn. The book boasts more than 200 vintage images and memories of days gone by.

Southern Railway’s Spencer Shops was a vibrant part of the Southeast’s transportation network for more than 80 years. Starting in the late 1800s and continuing until its closure in 1979, the shop complex and its accompanying yards, transfer sheds, and stockyards constituted a major force in the economy of North Carolina and Southern states.

The trains that the shop prepared were hauling everyday freight—Appalachian lumber, Piedmont textiles, and perishables—or were famous passenger trains like the Crescent, the Peach Queen, and many more. Others were more notable, such as the locomotive in the folk ballad “The Wreck of the Old 97” or President Roosevelt’s funeral train in 1945. The Spencer Shops was an industrial power whose prominence today is celebrated in its continued role as the home to the North Carolina Transportation Museum. This book tells the story of how Spencer Shops came to be, its role in transportation, and its continued use today as a North Carolina Historic Site.

Highlights of Southern Railway’s Historic Spencer Shops:
•   Creation of Spencer Shops and the Town of Spencer
•   Steam and diesel locomotive repair and operation
•   The people of Spencer Shops
•   The final years

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com or
(888)-313-2665.

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With more than 6,000 local history titles published to date, Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Widely recognized sepia books feature hundreds of vintage historical images.