Florence, SC: CSX+Amtrak/ACL Depot, Railyard and Roundhouse and SAL Depot

ACL Depot: (Satellite)

Railyard: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

SAL Current: (Satellite, a guess)

SAL Original: (Satellite, a guess)

This depot is along an ACL route. I presume the less ornate building on the left was the separate waiting room.

Street View, Feb 2022

Dale Proctor posted
ACL station, Florence SC, 12/15/84

Dc Sharp: Wow a blast from the past for sure Dale Proctor in the right foreground is the front end of my backed in 1977 Buick LaSabre Sport Coupe so I was probably out of town either South or North.

When I first saw this photo I was thinking about the Dodge on the Left and who it belonged to since many of us recognized the cars our coworkers drove and could determine if they were out of town or not both here and in the Yard parking lots too,

Ah the Good Old Days !

I still have those wheels and the Engine (Kenne Bell 350 Oldsmobile) replacing the Original Oldsmobile Motor.

The depot is in the right background.

Street View, Jan 2022

Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted

Florence Yard

On the long drive from Savannah to Alexandria I timed our dinner stop this year to have a look around this railroad town.  Founded in 1853 as a stop on the new Wilmington and Manchester Railroad it grew into a major crossroads with lines radiating in six directions as late as the 1970s (four former ACL routes and two SAL).  And while, contraction has reduced that by half but it remains an important point on modern day CSXT.  The city is still home to a CSXT division office and busy 28 track flat switching yard.  It is a crew change point for road trains on CSXT's busy I95 corridor and the division point between the South End Sub to the north and the Charleston Sub to the south.  The South Carolina Central Railroad (a Genesee and Wyoming Subsidiary) comes into town as well on a former ACL route from Darlington that CSXT spun off in the 1980s to Railtex.  

Additionally,  a half dozen Amtrak trains pass through daily with the Palmetto and Silver Meteor serving the city and the Auto Train stopping in the middle of the night to swap crews and fuel and service the locomotives.

Both historic former SAL and ACL stations survive in the city repurposed to other uses, the former as a church and the latter as hospital offices. 

Looking due east (timetable north) off the East Lucas Street overpass, AC4400CW CSXT 583 sits on the end of a tied down train on Main 1 in front of the Amtrak station.  I don't know the train symbol or even if this was the head of a southbound waiting to head out on the Charleston Sub or the DP unit on the rear of a northbound waiting to head up the South End Sub.  Thru the heat shimmers can be seen remote control CSXT 8470 (a rebuilt SD40-2 originally blt. Oct. 1966 as a straight SD40 UP 3056) switching on the south ladder.  

Florence, South Carolina

Wednesday March 30, 2023

Randall Hampton shared
Florence SC
Doug Stone: Amtrak platform on right side of photo

Dennis DeBruler commented on Randall's share
Part of the roundhouse foundation is still visible.
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.2015671,-79.7608733,244m/data=!3m1!1e3

Doug Stone posted
A week ago there a nice post on the Florence SC yard for CSX.
To add another view, I flew over it in a Ford Trimotor today.

 

The roundhouse was already gone by 1957. It appears ACL had some backshops.

EarthExplorer: Mar 30, 1957 @ 24,000; AR1VOJ000010076

Since the roundhouse was gone by 1957, I also got the lower resolution view from 1950.

EarthExplorer: Nov 21, 1950 @ 58,000; ARA007104205842

This is the building along the SAL route that has the architecture of a depot.

Street View, Jan 2022

The church building on the right is about a block further south, and it is also along the SAL route.

Street View, Jan 2022

I think the depot building was originally on the land that the church now owns and that it was moved about a block north to make room for the church's new building.

1945 Florence West and East Quads @ 62,500

I added a green line in the upper-left corner to this copy to indicate a track that I think the cartographer missed. It was needed by freight trains going through Florence. Passenger trains had to stop and do a backing maneuver to go to the depot.

1945 Florence West and East Quads @ 62,500 plus Paint

This closeup of the aerial photo confirms the "green track."

Digitally Zoomed