Pickens Railway (PICK) 9507 - GE U18B

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” has arrived at the interchange with the Greenville and Western in Belton, SC with 13 cars in tow for the GRLW. Blocked from being viewed by the U18Bs are GP9s #3751 and #3752. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PKHP, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” has arrived at the interchange with the Greenville and Western in Belton, SC with 13 cars in tow for the GRLW. Blocked from being viewed by the U18Bs are GP9s #3751 and #3752. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PKHP, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” has arrived at the interchange with the Greenville and Western in Belton, SC with 13 cars in tow for the GRLW. To the right of the photo is the GRLW crew with GP9s #3751 and #3752. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PKHP, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” has arrived at the interchange with the Greenville and Western in Belton, SC with 13 cars in tow for the GRLW. To the right of the photo is the GRLW crew with GP9s #3751 and #3752. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PKHP, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” has arrived at the interchange with the Greenville and Western in Belton, SC and prepares to cross Belton-Honea Path Highway with 13 cars in tow. To the right of the photo is the GRLW crew with GP9s #3751 and #3752. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PKHP, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” has arrived at the interchange with the Greenville and Western in Belton, SC and prepares to cross Belton-Honea Path Highway with 13 cars in tow. To the right of the photo is the GRLW crew with GP9s #3751 and #3752. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PKHP, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” ambles along parallel to S. Main Street in Belton, SC with 13 cars in tow to interchange with the Greenville and Western. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PICK, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” passes Blue Ridge Beef along Blue Ridge Avenue in Belton, SC with 13 cars in tow to interchange with the Greenville and Western. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PKHP, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pckens Railway’s “Belton Job” passes Blue Ridge Beef along Blue Ridge Avenue in Belton, SC with 13 cars in tow to interchange with the Greenville and Western. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PKHP, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” rounds a curve and approaches the US 29 Bypass grade crossing in Anderson, SC with 13 cars in tow to interchange with the Greenville and Western. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PICK, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” approaches the Amity Road grade crossing between Anderson and Belton, SC with 13 cars in tow to interchange with the Greenville and Western. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PICK, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” rounds a curve and approaches the US 29 Bypass grade crossing in Anderson, SC with 13 cars in tow to interchange with the Greenville and Western. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PICK, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Pickens Railway’s “Belton Job” rounds a curve and approaches the US 29 Bypass grade crossing in Anderson, SC with 13 cars in tow to interchange with the Greenville and Western. Once the GRLW received the cut of cars from the PICK, they would immediately head north to Pelzer to drop them off for a CSX local to pick up and open them up to the national rail network.

Having arrived back at Docheno siding, the three U18B’s are tying onto some offspot flatters loaded with ties. The crew will wait for their colleague to finish unloading a second Centerbeam before using all three units to pull those two out and respot the rest for unloading. PICK 9500 will be left behind on the mainline while 9507 and 9508 will head back to Belton and ultimately home to Anderson.

One last departing shot of the Belton Job, as they head home to Anderson.

Their chores in Belton done, the Belton Job is headed home to Anderson. Theyve already passed downtown Belton and are rolling by Veterans Memorial Park on the other side of town as they make their way home. At the base of those flags lie a granite monument honoring local veterans from WW1 and WW2.

The GRLW having spotted the remainder of NS bound cars, the Pickens is highballing it over to their own tracks and eventually back to Anderson.

Having gathered their cars from the GRLWs Belton yard, Pickens now pulls onto the connecting track so GRLW can spot the cars from Belton Job that are bound for Norfolk Southern. You can see some of the cars from the Belton Job behind the locomotives.

The Belton job has crossed US178 and passed the sign demarcating between their trackage and that of the Greenville and Western. The Pickens connects to Norfolk Southern in Anderson to access the rest of the North American rail system, while the GRLW meets with CSX in Anderson. Working more as partners than competitors, the Pickens and Greenville and Western work together to provide their customers access to both major eastern Class 1s. The Pickens has a huge customer base, including First Quality Tissue (makers of paper towels, napkins, and other paper items of convenience, and a Michelin tire plant, among others, and provides a large amount of traffic to GRLW. Pretty soon GRLW will be serving a large wood products distributor thats currently being built, and will no doubt be depending on the Pickens to bring them traffic for their line as well.

Trains were originally pulled by horses before the steam locomotive came along. Living the life of luxury, these horses are oblivious to the passage of the Belton Job. I'm sure a team of them could yank those two empty center beams no problem though!

You cant quite tell from this photo, but 9508 is the tail end of the train as the Belton Job shoves back to their cut of interchange bound for the CSX via Greenville and Western.

Having finished their chores on the branch, Pickens Belton Job is headed to its namesake town for a meeting with the Greenville and Western to exchange cars.

Having removed two empty center beams, the Belton job is spotting two more for unloading behind the bulkhead flat. That car will be pulled away and left off spot so the forklift can get to either side of the center beams and unload them evenly.

Originally starting with two units, the Belton job picked up sister U18B 9500 off the PCA spur while they were in Honea Path. Shes not running right now, and theyre going to eventually drop her in about 200 yards after working Docheno siding, where the PICK is unloading and staging ties for track work. Whether its for this branch or GRLWs new customer is unknown to me.

Most of the streets are crossed at grade on the Honea Path branch, but US-178 gains elevation on both sides to let motorists keep right on flying, oblivious to the shoreline show taking place beneath their wheels.

In contrast to sister 9507, 9508 still sparkles in the midday sun as they position the cars just so. Around these parts Orange is a favorite color, and youre likely going to hear someone shouting "Go Tigers!" if its a fall Saturday and youre wearing the right shade of it.

The Belton Job has reached as far as they can on the line; everything past here is a massive cut of car storage. Theyll pull forward to spot these cars, then begin the trek back to Belton and a meeting with the GRLW.

Whats great for the summer is cool in the fall and downright freezing in the brief winter months as the Belton Job shoves towards Honea Path

9507 hasnt seen the wash rack in a good long while. Fortunately its what on the inside that counts, and the FDL prime mover is still running strong

A bit more of a close-up of the PICK units as they push their train Southeast towards Honea Path

The Pickens has three cars headed down to the storage trackage in Honea Path as their first chore today. Likely the two head end hoppers are just off-spot for Tri-County Fertilizer.

Re-upload working on completing this album again.

Re-upload working on completing this album again.

Pickens Anderson Job waiting for the conductor to board to head back to Gluck

Pickens 9507 and 9502 head back to Gluck form their interchange with Norfork Southern passing what remains of an old textile mill in downtown Anderson, SC.