Atlantic Coast Line
Florence, SC to Charleston, SC
Introduction
Historically, if a shipper had freight, and wanted to get it from, say, Miami to New York City, it had to travel on several different roads. Today, CSX will do the entire job for you. This is the long-sought "seamless service" that CSX and NS used to justify much of the sense behind the break-up of Conrail. We're in the process of putting together a tour that you can use to follow the rails all the way from the Shared Assets Area in northern New Jersey to southern Florida, and the overall tour site is here. For information about the Other Tours within Frograil, go to the Frograil Tour Guide. If this will be your first tour using data within the Frograil system of tours, you really should explore the Tour Guide thoroughly before venturing forth -- there is a lot of good, basic information contained therein, which could save you some serious grief.
This segment of the tour will cover the railroad from the Amtrak Station in Florence, South Carolina, to North Charleston, South Carolina, a distance of 80 timetable miles. If you want to just quickly drive the route and hit some highlights, you can do it in 3-5 hours. However, if you want to see some trains and enjoy yourself, it's easily an all day tour. For lots more info about this piece of railroad, check out the Supplemental Data below.
Contents And Navigation
Other Tours
For information concerning the other Frograil tours which have been put together, go to the Tour Guide.
Contributors To This Tour
Alex Willis: Text provider, Lake City, SC to Goose Creek, SC.
Train Gifs. All train gifs used within this tour are from the Ed Bindler's train gifs site, which is here.
Peter Furnee, CSX logo
Tony Hill, Webmaster and text provider, Florence to Lake City, SC. The guy who makes Frograil "go".
Help
If you'd like to contribute to this, or any other tour, please contact me at tohill@hotmail.com, and let me know what you'd like to do. We'll work together: You supply the data/info, and I'll do the HTML stuff and upload it. You'll get a chance to review the fruits of your efforts before the general public sees the finished product, so you can let me have your corrections, additions and changes.
Supplemental And Back-Up Data.
Life Support. As you travel this segment of the tour, you're usually pretty close to US-52. Gas, bathrooms, and the like are never very far away. However, most of the tour is pretty rural, so don't wait to be driving on fumes before you start looking for a gas station. For meals, you'll have to be a little careful about where you want to be at lunchtime. Florence, Lake City, Moncks Corner and the Charleston area have motels, and Florence and Charleston have hospitals, shopping malls, and fairly extensive shopping.
The Railroad -- Geography. [NOTE: This discussion is limited to this segment of the tour, only.] The railroad is in the Coastal Plain for the entire length of this segment. That means you'll be in flat, mostly open countryside, with sandy, almost white soil. One very nice thing about the countryside is that you can pull off the road almost everywhere, and have a nice, safe, solid area to park. There are many minor streams, and two major rivers, Santee and Cooper, encountered on the tour. Indeed, the area between these two rivers is primarily within the Francis Marion National Forest, and remember what Mr. Marion's nickname was: "The Swamp Fox." It's not for nothing that this area was named after him. I encourage you to take some time and explore this fascinating part of our nation, but get prepared ahead of time with maps and life support material for a wilderness expedition. Also, you might want to get a line wet in the Santee-Cooper area, as the bass fishing is quite famous.
The Railroad -- Physical Plant. For the long term survival and growth of CSX, this route is vital. The physical plant is in excellent condition -- not just the trackwork, but everything is obviously well maintained, and the right-of-way is cleared of brush and grass. When CTC was installed, the Coast Line left several miles of double track, then several miles of single, etc., so rather than lots of single track with some sidings, you actually are touring a railroad which might be considered a 1 1/2 track main line. Capacity-wise, that was a smart decision, because this road can handle a lot more traffic than it's seeing today. Trains run fast, and they can be easily fleeted, because of the large amount of double trackage available to the dispatcher in Jacksonville.
The Railroad -- Railfan Considerations. This is an easy railroad to fan, in that US-52 pretty much hugs it all the way from Florence to Charleston. The terrain is flat, and the spots Alex details are fairly open, with good photo possibilities. While a breeze to railfan compared to, say, the Clinchfield or the James River Line, you will not generally be able to pace trains, as the railroad is the best piece of engineering around, and you will probably have to drive rather stupidly to keep up. Amtrak has a 79-mph limit, so you'd best pace those trains in a helicopter.This is a piece of railroad where it makes sense to slow down and let the trains come to you. Follow the tour for awhile, and then sit for a spell. Life is slower down here in the south, so slow down and enjoy yourself.
The Railroad -- Traffic. You can, and will, see almost anything on the line. Remember that this is the I-95 of the railroad world, and it serves to connect the northeast metropolitan areas with the southeast and Florida. As you would expect, there are several Amtrak trains a day, as well as CSX's intermodal fleet. Manifest freight trains and unit coal trains round out the basic traffic, but unit grain trains and other non-regular movements will be seen.
As far as the number of trains, it's probably 22-36 per day, so you may see 3 in 30 minutes, or nothing for 2 hours. Another thing you should remember: This railroad is flat, and has relatively few curves. Therefore, expect the trains to be fast and quiet. Be ready and be alert at all times.
Station List.Go for CSX timetable data. You'll want to print out the appropriate material and study it before you begin your tour.here
Mapwork: Much of the tour is not easy if you have no detailed map for back country roads. I definitely recommend you get a DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer, study it before your trip, and copy pertinent pages for your field work. You can usually get substantial discounts on DeLorme atlases thru the Frograil Railfan Store.
WEBMASTER'S NOTE: I do not recommend or condone walking along the tracks, as this means trespassing and exposing yourself to danger. You will have to be creative, in some instances, to avoid trespassing while getting to the detailed locations included herein, but you will either have to be creative or not visit those sites. At no point in this tour guide, or any other tour which is part of Frograil, is it recommended that you trespass or expose yourself to danger. If you are a fool and have a leg cut off (or worse), don't come crying to me: You have been warned. Trains are big, powerful, and often surprisingly quiet. Don't end up being a statistic.
Florence to Charleston, SC -- Railfan Sites:
| Alphabetical Sequence | Sequential Order: North (East) to South (West) |
|---|---|
| ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ |
| Bonneau | Florence -- Amtrak Station MP A292.7 |
| Coward | Effingham |
| Effingham | New Hope |
| Etta | Coward |
| Florence -- Amtrak Station | Scranton |
| Goose Creek | Lake City |
| Gourdin | Lake City -- Nanya Plant |
| Hanahan | Lake City -- Patty Road |
| Kingstree -- Amtrak Station | North Cades MP A321.0 |
| Lake City | Kingstree -- Amtrak Station |
| Lake City -- Nanya Plant | Salters |
| Lake City -- Patty Road | Lane -- Broomstraw Road |
| Lane -- Broomstraw Road | Lane -- Wye MP A341.4 |
| Lane -- Wye | Gourdin |
| Macbeth | Etta |
| Moncks Corner | St. Stephen |
| New Hope | Bonneau |
| North Cades | Macbeth |
| N. Charleston -- Amtrak Station | Pinopolis Junction MP A360.5 |
| N. Charleston -- CSX/NS crossing | Moncks Corner |
| Pinopolis Junction | Strawberry |
| Salters | Goose Creek MP A379.0 |
| Scranton | Hanahan |
| St. Stephen | N. Charleston -- CSX/NS crossing |
| Strawberry | N. Charleston -- Amtrak Station MP A388 |
The Tour
Florence -- Amtrak Station. [Web Master's Note: Florence was once one of the great nerve centers of the Atlantic Coast Line. It ranked right up there with Waycross, Georgia. With the ACL/SAL merger, however, Hamlet was retained as a major terminal, and Florence was significantly downgraded. As you stand at the Amtrak platform and look east, you see much more physical plant than seems necessary, but that's not to denigrate the fact that Florence is still quite important, and there are lots of trains to be seen here.]
[Text from Florence to Lake City is from Tony Hill.]
As you come in from the east, you just want to get up to the yard and see the action. Forget it. Just come into the eastern edge of town via US-301, and after crossing the first set of tracks, go north on Cromwell Drive. You'll dead end at Day Street, and you want to take a left. Day will parallel the southern edge of the yard all the way to the big, impressive ex-ACL station, which is now some administrative offices of the McLeod Medical Center (which seems to take up about 80% of the entire metropolitan area!). There is really nothing to see, railroad-wise, from Day, but at least you'll be close to some tracks. At the big station, just continue west, and the new Amtrak station is just to the west.
The new Amtrak station is nice -- really nice. It's clean, modern, functional, and a credit to Florence and Amtrak. If only more Amtrak stations were so nice. Need I point out that about 85% of all the action thru Florence passes by just north of the platform? This is THE place to watch trains downtown.
[Web Master's Note: This is not intended to be an expert's tour of Florence. As in the case of most cities, there are many places to see trains, and many other sites of historic railroad interest. Such sites are beyond the scope of this tour. We are touring the CSX ex-ACL main line on the east coast, not embarking on a detailed analysis of all rail and railfan locations in Florence. Indeed, the best place to watch trains in Florence is in front of the Amtrak station, as virtually everything thru will go by this point. East of the station, you are out in the yard, and subject to arrest and confinement. South of the station, the juxtaposition of railroad and street is very tight -- it's pretty much a "forget it" situation.
From the station, go south on Gaillard Street to a right on Cheves Street. This will take you to Church Street, and you want to take a left and go south on Church. At the intersection for James Jones Street, get on the latter and continue south. [Web Master's Note: This area has recently been, and continues to be, a fast-growing area, and the streets are changing all the time. The ultimate objective is to get on US-52/US-301 southbound.] Where Irby Street joins James Jones, the street will become Irby Street/ US-52/US-301 south. At this point, you've gotten considerably west of the tracks, but that will be remedied shortly.
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Effingham. Several miles south of Florence, US-52 and US-301 will split, and you want to go straight south on US-52. But don't relax your concentration, because you'll immediately need to turn left onto SC-327/East Effingham Road. You'll reach the tracks in a mile or so, but want to park at the old store west of the tracks. Walk north of your car and look over the tracks, and what do you see? Among the trees and weeds is a station, believe it or not, and it has probably been at least 50 years since any passenger departed or disembarked from a train at Effingham. Photos of the depot are difficult in the extreme because of the trees, but take your pix -- this is a historical structure which may well be gone before you get back here again. You can walk across the crossing and up to the station on the east side, but pix aren't worth a hoot from that vantage either. This is just one of those places you need to put your camera down and just think about. This crumbling building was Effingham's door to the whole world not too many years ago, and only its dreams are holding it up now. To your friendly Web Master, this is a vital part of railfanning.
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New Hope. Continue south on US-52. As you come into the New Hope area, you'll see signal masts, as the railroad and US-52 are all of 30 feet apart. Go over the tracks on North Old Georgetown Road, and then take an immediate right on Fowler Road. Park along the road and enjoy the view. Signals are visible to the south, and if you walk 50 yards or so, you likewise have access to northbound signals. This is New Hope, MP 306.0, and is one really nice place to watch trains, but it is primarily an AM location.
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Coward. Continue on US-52 southbound thru the village of Coward to the south end of town. Park in the vicinity of McCutcheons Concrete. Park well away from the concrete operations, and walk around the business to back to the tracks and the Coward interlocking, where double track ends southbound. For pix, this place is tight from the east, and no better than OK from the west.
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Scranton. Well, if I had to pick one town to watch trains between Pembroke and Lake City, this is the place. Nothing fancy, just pure small town America, with lots of room to see the action. Plenty of room for the kids to run all over the place, and there's just something about this little town which is appealing. From US-52, go east on Main Street to Railroad Avenue. Pick your spot for the lawn chairs and the coolers, Tell the kids to get out and run around. There is a talking defect detector "Scranton" at MP A314.4, which will get you some advance warning, but with all the crossings, you shouldn't get surprised, unless you're playing kick ball with the kids. This is a lovely place to watch trains.
As an aside, Alex Willis, who provides our text south of Lake City has this nice tid-bit about Scranton: "Add to the current A-line tour the School House Restaurant which is possibly the best restaurant along the A-line. It is in Scranton north of Lake City, and the restaurant is off of US-52, and has a view of the tracks from the dinner table!!"
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Lake City. This is a pretty good sized town, considering the area, and you'll be able to follow the tracks closely thru town. At the first red light in town, turn left, and go to the tracks. Turn right and follow the tracks all the way thru town. This street is named "ACLINE", and you've got to love that! The ACL station is in the middle of town, and, well, honestly, is not the prettiest we've ever seen. Anyway, continue south on Acline, and it will become South Church Street, which in turn will end at US-52 southbound. Continue south and then take a left on West Village to the tracks. This is the site of the South Lake City interlocking. This is a very tight location, and is not a recommended railfan location. Double track southbound begins here. [MP A317.5]
[Webmaster's Note: Text from Lake City south to Charleston is courtesy of Alex Willis.]
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Lake City -- Nanya Plant. Continue south on US-52, and take a left on local road (LR) LR-1304, and look for the Nanya sign. Nanya is a large plastics plant. The plant is a great backdrop for photos.
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Lake City -- Patty Road. Continue south on US-52 for only a half mile or so, and the first real left will be Patty Road. This will quickly take you to the tracks, and a nice long, straight section of track. [Please note that when Alex mentions a "long, straight track" he is indicating that this is a good photo location.] This is double track here, so be alert.
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North Cades. Continuing south on US-52, you'll see the intersection with SC-512. Take a left and drive to the tracks. There is another nice long section of straight track. This is the end of the double track southbound. MP A321.0.
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Kingstree -- Amtrak Station. Get back on US-52 heading south, and after about 4 1/2 miles, you'll pass a Baxter health care products plant (apparently defunct), and the tracks will magically appear on your left. You'll hug them all the way to Kingstree. As you get into the built up area, US-52 will veer off to the southwest, but you need to continue close to the tracks. Therefore, take a left onto SC-261, which is Main Street in Kingstree, and then a right just before the tracks, and viola, you're at the Amtrak lot.
As you leave Kingstree, you'll notice that some of the geographic features you've been noticing are becoming more pronounced. For some time, you've been in the part of South Carolina referred to as the Low Country, and the amount of swampy lowlands has been subtly increasing. While the massive tree plantations have somewhat obscured that, immediately south of Kingstree, it will be very obvious that the countryside has changed, and not subtly. As a testimony to the engineering and construction skills of those Americans who came well before us, the railroad runs in a virtually straight line from Kingstree all the way to Moncks Corner. One can only imagine what it must have been like to survey and build a line thru miles and miles of swamp during a South Carolina summer!
At 3800 souls, Kingstree offers basic life support, including a motel, 20+ restaurants, etc.
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Salters. To follow the railroad south, we're going to have to make a modest detour, as the highway builders tried to avoid the majority of the Black River swamp basin just south of Kingstree. Go back to SC-261 and head east, crossing the tracks. Take a right onto SC-377, and then after 5-6 miles, take a right onto US-521 to head back west. After a total of about 10 miles from the Kingstree station, you'll see the highway rise up for an overpass (everything is quite flat here, so a highway overpass is obvious and out of the ordinary) of the A-line. Before crossing the tracks, however, take a right onto Glad Street, which deposits you in the very small community of Salters. This is an excellent area for photos, and is one of Alex's favorites.
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Lane -- Broomstraw Road. Backtrack to US-521, and head east to the intersection with SC-377. Take a right to go south, and SC-377 will take you right into Lane. However, just before the Lane town limits, take a right onto Broomstraw Road, which will deliver you to a nice photo spot with a long, straight piece of track. Double track southbound begins here, and extends thru Lane and the Lane subdivision junction.
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Lane -- Wye. Get back on SC-377 and then turn right onto Center Avenue. Cross the tracks, and then take a right onto Coastline Avenue, and continue on until you reach the tracks. This is where the Lane Subdivision (Lane - Sumter - Columbia) enters/exits the A-Line. There is an old signal bridge still in use. Adding to the traffic from here south to Charleston is the daily (each way) Charleston - Sumter Turn, and a coal train daily (each way) for the power plant at Cross (discussed below), and every 1-3 days (each way) a coal train to Pinopolis (discussed below). Since you've already been treated to 22-36 per day, the addition of 5 or so more is quite a bonus. Train frequencies, especially those pertaining to coal trains, can vary considerably.
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Gourdin. SC-377 parallels the tracks between the wye at Lane and the village of Gourdin. SC-377 will come to a stop sign, and you want to take a right onto SC-375. As you go west on SC-375, you'll shortly cross the tracks, and this is your photo location.You are now in Santee-Cooper country, and you're going to enter one of America's great playgrounds. The Santee and Pinopolis dams have created Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, respectively, and there are state parks, wildlife refuge areas, and plenty of things to do. However, and make no mistake about it, this is bass country, so leave your flies and chum home.
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Etta. When you leave Gourdin, you're going to have to leave the railroad also, because it goes straight south, while no roads do so. Go west on SC-375 until you once again reach US-52, and go south (left) on US-52. You'll go almost 10 miles and will need to start paying attention. Take a left onto Pinetree Drive. Come to a stop sign and take a right onto Imperial drive, and then a left onto Plat Street. After another mile or 2, you'll go under the railroad tracks, and should take your first right into a parking lot. Bring a fishing pole and wait for the trains. Alex states unequivocally that: "This is the best photo location in South Carolina." I'd be curious to know if you agree.
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St. Stephen. Get back on US-52, and take a left onto SC-45. Cross the tracks and take a left on North Main Street, and this will take you to Cross Junction. As mentioned earlier, coal trains from Lane Junction come south, and at St. Stephens, go out to a power plant in the Cross area. Alex estimates that about one train per day each way, on average, serves the Cross SCEG facility (about 12 miles west of the junction). There is also a Georgia-Pacific plant a few miles west of the junction, and the Charleston - Sumter turn services it. The actual village of St. Stephens is slightly south of the junction, and the location of the end of double track southward is at St. Stephen, 3.8 miles south of the junction [MP A352.9]. US-52 parallels the railroad south from Cross Junction until just north of Bonneau.
Eleven miles west of St. Stevens on SC-45 is a State Historical Site honoring Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. He was a great patriot and resolute foe of the British during the Revolutionary Way. He had the respect of the British as Field Marshall Rommel, The Desert Fox, had the respect of the Americans during World War II. Sadly, in today's history-deprived educational system, it would be difficult to find high school graduates who have ever heard of Francis Marion.
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Bonneau. After crossing the tracks (via US-52) just north of the village of Bonneau, turn right before the Exxon gas station onto Black Oak Road. There is probably no road sign here. The crossing is open, and there is a stretch of straight, single track.
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Macbeth. Continue south on US-52, and take a right after about 2-3 miles onto Old Macbeth Road. There is another nice stretch of straight, single track here, and plenty of photo access. For those fans with a scanner, there is a defect detector at MP A359.5, just south of the crossing.
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Pinopolis Junction. This is the site of the second coal plant we've encountered south of Florence (the first was west of St. Stephens via Cross Junction -- see above). According to Michael Derrick, who assisted Alex and I on this site:
"Pinopolis Junction is not accessible by public road. The switch is just on the south side of the big lift span drawbridge over the Tail Race. The [generating] plant, however, is EXTREMELY accessible. There is a large sign on US-52 announcing its presence [as] the Jeffries Generating Station. Turn is about a mile north of the fork of US-52 and US17A. [A sign to the] Navy "Short Stay" recreation area is also a landmark for the turn. Pinopolis is a neat operation because they use shakers instead of rotary dump (at least when [Michael] was last there). This is all visible from public property.
"As far as the location of the plant, it is hard on the Tail Race right at the dam that forms Lake Moultrie on the north side of the canal. Frequency of coal trains is hard to predict."
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Moncks Corner. As you enter fast-growing Moncks Corner, US-52 will split to become US-52By-Pass and US-52Business. As you can imagine, you'll want to stick to US-52Business. However, much life support is available on the By-Pass. Entering town on US-52Business, take a right onto SC-6 (Main Street), and drive west towards the tracks. There is a depot in the trackside area, and several photo locations both north and south of SC-6.
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Strawberry. Leave Moncks Corner via US-52Business, and shortly you'll blend into the US-52By-Pass to head south towards Charleston. However, where US-52Business and US-52By-Pass come together, a non-descript Old Highway 52 goes southwest. This latter road is the one to take, as it will shortly be parallel to the railroad. You'll parallel the railroad all the way south to the crossroads of Strawberry, but will be somewhat to the east all the while. There are a few crossings, and you can get OK pix at them. However, one road to keep in mind is in Strawberry itself, and that is Cypress Garden Road. At this point, the Old Highway 52 has gone some 600-1000 yards east of the railroad, and you might want to take Cypress Garden west to the tracks. However, the big attraction in the area is non-railroad, and it's Cypress Gardens itself.
This nation-class botanical garden is located east of Strawberry via Cypress Garden Road, and, to quote the deLorme Atlas and Gazetteer for South Carolina: "Walking paths and flat-bottomed boat rides through 163-acre black water swamp and cypress forest. Working rice field planted and harvested by early methods. Azalea, camellia and spring bulb floral displays."
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Goose Creek. If you've followed Old Highway 52 south from Moncks Corner, this is the place where you'll rejoin US-52 just north of Charleston. There are a couple of noteworthy items here. First, the shot from the railroad overpass is well worth getting, according to Alex; secondly (also according to Alex), there are lots of fast food joints in the vicinity to keep you stoked up for the assault on Charleston -- a big time terminal: Just one word of warning: You'll have to follow our directions here, as this place is hard to find on a map. I'm going to assign a mile point of A379.0 here, as there is a defect detector in the area ("Goose Creek") at A378.9, but I don't know its exact location.)
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Hanahan. Continuing south on US-52, as you get into the northern suburbs of Charleston, the road will be named Rivers Avenue. The railroad parallels Rivers/US-52 about 1-2 blocks east (left) thru the community of Hanahan. There are several left hand turns which will take you to the tracks. Alex recommends the following: When you get to the Northwoods Mall, turn left just before the movie theater sign with all of the movie listings.
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North Charleston -- CSX/NS crossing. In North Charleston, continuing south from the Northwoods Mall on US-52, you will shortly come to a major intersection with Remount Road. Take a left and go east on Remount about 3 blocks and cross the CSX tracks (the A-Line you've been following throughout this tour), then take your first right onto Cotton Avenue. Follow Cotton to the crossing -- about 3-4 blocks or so. The NS, running virtually east-west, is a branch from the mainline to the west of US-52. The branch ("Reeds Branch") allows NS access to the Port of North Charleston and other industrial complexes. Expect 1-4 trains per 24 hours on the branch.
North Charleston -- Amtrak Station.Backtrack to Rivers/US-52, and head farther south. You'll go up and over the A-Line on a rather S-curve-type overpass, and you should be in the right lane. Take the next right turn, which is Aragon Street. Aragon takes you under the overpass and to the Amtrak compound. There are plenty of Amtrak directions signs. The gates are opened at 6AM and locked after the last train runs.
You are 388.0 miles from the James River in Richmond, Virginia.
Well, there is excitement straight ahead, as the A-Line is about to go thru Ashley Junction, and then turn 90° to go west thru SY interlocking (which is in the middle of three yards!) thru the very large Bennett Yard, and then on to Savannah. To continue on towards Jacksonville and Florida, go here.