Smoke & Cinders (4th Quarter 2018) – Thirty Tons of Archives
Thirty Tons of Archives
The Southern Railway Historical Association was formed at the former Southern Railway’s Spencer Shops, now The North Carolina Transportation Museum, in 1986. Almost immediately individuals and Norfolk Southern recognized “SRHA” as a group that was strongly focused and interested in preserving the history of Southern Railway. TVRM and SRHA’s mutual interest in the Southern has led to many people with memberships in both. The merger of Southern and Norfolk & Western in 1982 led to many changes in both railroads. Company records were reviewed for future use with many moved to different NS offices or identified as not being needed. Fortunately, both SRHA and the Norfolk & Western Historical Society were available and ready to receive and preserve drawings and files for “their” railroads.
As the SRHA collection grew (and grew) we had to keep looking for places to store everything that also provided access and work areas. The collection grew again when NS closed Hayne Shop in Spartanburg and Coster Shop in Knoxville. At that time the archives were in a warehouse in High Point, NC that the owner wanted to sell so we moved everything to TVRM. For several years the SRHA archives resided in the semi trailer and container still parked