Just read that CSX has been busy with a demolition spree, razing three C&O structures and an SAL depot, all of which I'm well familiar with. CW Cabin at Hinton, WV - Gone A Cabin at Alleghany, VA - Gone The depot at Balcony Falls, WV - Gone Plus the Abbeville, SC depot is now gone. I have 35mm slides of it, but they're not scanned. The photo below is not mine, but is linked. Its destruction shocked the community because preservationists had been working closely with CSX until the day it was razed. Abbeville was once a crew change point and years ago a kindly engineman there invited my wife and I into the cab for a tour. I realize that you can't save everything, but that fact somehow doesn't diminish my sadness at seeing these buildings fall.
Well said. I like shooting locomotives as much as the next guy, but I think that photographs of structures, signals, rolling stock and physical plant will be rarities as years pass.
It's a shame to see things like that pass into history. Lots of things like this that I look back on and wish I had taken more pictures. With digital, I really have no excuse not to now.
Yes it is. Reading some of the local news, I read “It was a sad testimony to the lack of communication and presumptuousness of one of the largest corporations that operates in South Carolina not willing to engage a community in a productive and inclusive way to ensure their decisions were not detrimental to the history of the community,” Mike Bedenbaugh, executive director of the South Carolina Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation said. “I’ve never experienced anything like this.” The SAL is an important link to Abbeville's past and they already have a nice SAL caboose on display there. We can sure appreciate the dismay and betrayal the townspeople must feel against CSX management.
Need to 3D print them all and have a piece of history! Before they destroy them all I hope that doesn't happen I have seen some building with history stay up or get moved and restored! It would be nice if they moved it to were they put the caboose!
To prevent the demolition, were the preservationists making any effort to reimburse CSX for their costs related to maintenance, property taxes and insurance for the structure while the specifics of saving the depot were being discussed?
I was wondering too about the preservation efforts. CSX has to deal with the current situation, and the people wanting to preserve the structure may have been focusing on fundraising and planning, which doesn't really look like progress to CSX. Definitely a shame, and might have been avoided with better communications.
I think Rocket hit the nail on the head regarding communications. Preservation efforts were underway, but had not progressed far. CSX failed to notify the preservation group before demolition day and the deed was Fait Accompli. Business is business. SOU and NS cleared away many structures during the '70s and '80s before preservation efforts took root. Follow along many NS routes through the Carolinas and with a few notable exceptions, there's not much left of historic interest. As a photographer, I see only steel boulevards through the trees, where locations mostly all look the same.
This is the problem today, which RR PR folks completely fail to comprehend. With the removal of that depot, the RR has now completely disconnected itself from that town. All too many such sites now, the RR is just a pass through. It is likely no employees live there. The RR has reduced it's expenses, yes, but may have cut some property tax revenues locally. So there is some negative financial impact, even if small. The RR is now just a noisy nuisance to locals, whereas by saving the structure, there may been been some residual warmth from the act and thereafter. Oh well.