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| Belmont NC to get a trolley next year? (1304341) | |||
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Belmont NC to get a trolley next year? |
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Posted by Jon Bell on Sun Jul 27 16:38:50 2014 It looks like the inactive Belmont branch of the former Piedmont & Northern electric interurban may see passenger service next year, for the first time since 1932. The state will build a bike/hike trail alongside the track from downtown Belmont to Belmont Abbey College on the north side of town, and restore the track enough that Charlotte Trolley's former car #1, a single-truck car from Athens, Greece, can operate on it. There's no mention of overhead wire which would be a major expense, so I expect the car will tow a generator, like the Charlotte Trolley did in its early years.A new nonprofit group will probably be formed to take ownership of the car and operate it. Trolley Coming to Belmont (Gaston Gazette) Belmont Rail Trail Project (City of Belmont; includes map) In order to reach the college, the trail has to cross Interstate 85. There is a single-track rail bridge that doesn't look wide enough to carry the track and the trail side-by-side. There does appear to be a shoulder on the adjacent road bridge that carries NC 7 over I-85, so maybe they'll simply shift the trail over to the road bridge. A couple of years ago I posted a few pictures of the ROW and the former P&N station in downtown Belmont:  By chance, I drove across these tracks yesterday on my way home from Charlotte via US 29&74, whose intersection is in the far background of the picture above. But I found out about this project only this afternoon while reading the latest Railpace magazine.    This is going to take a lot of cleanup work! |
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