Museum Structures

ewton was served by the narrow gauge Chester & Lenoir, which arrived in 1882. It was folded into Southern subsidiary Carolina & North Western and converted to standard gauge in 1902. The Newton Depot Authority was created in 1995 to save the depot. It was on the property of Norfolk Southern, and they had plans to demolish it due to liability issues. Originally located at the junction of the Carolina and North-Western and the Western North Carolina Railroads, in 1997 it was moved half a mile down the tracks. The restoration was funded through the Depot Authority with help from donors, grants and the City of Newton. It was completed in summer 2005.

Chris Guenzler

his flatcar, numbered 1880 to commemorate the arrival of the narrow gauge to Newton, began its life as a Denver & Rio Grande Western high side gondola in Colorado. This narrow gauge car was built in 1902 as one of 1200 cars by America Car & Foundry (New Jersey). In the 1940's, it was one of several cars rebuilt by the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy for use at the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair. It was later obtained and used for years in a Colorado tourist operation known as the Georgetown Loops Railroad. When the operator of that line moved on, the Alexander Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society purchased this car (Georgetown Loop #7) in January 2015, as well as sister Rail-Fair cars #9, and the "Saxon Mountain," #5. The cars were moved to the museum by truck in August 2016.

Southeastern Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum

ade's Train Town is an HO Scale display layout originally built by Wade Warren between 1984 and 1995 in the Brookford Community Center, Brookford, NC. The layout represents Wade's interpretation of a town with over 280 structures, most with operating lights and other features, that has a residential area, downtown, a carnival park, light industry, and heavy industrial areas. Two main lines circle the layout and are operational and there is a respectable stock of locomotives and rolling stock. Over the ten years between his retirement and his death, Wade's Train Town grew to an 18 foot by 22 foot work of art. It contains not only the 280 buildings, but also thousands of 'little people', most of which he painted by hand, which populate his town. As outstanding as all this may be, the truly amazing thing is that Wade built most of his layout while confined to a wheelchair. He worked on the layout almost every day and hosted hundreds of folks, from pre-schoolers to seniors, on visits to his empire.

Carolina Southern Division