Florence, SC was an ACL town and before the merger SAL just sneaked in and out of town by the back door. The SAL McBee-Poston branch came into Florence from Darlington and crossed over the ACL yard on a bridge just south of the Koppers tie plant. At some point the tracks were taken up from Darlington to Florence and the old SAL line from Florence toward Poston was brought down and curved around to tie into the Florence yard. I always assumed this was done after the merger but I am not sure. Does anyone know when this was done, and when the bridge over the yard was taken down? What was the frequency of SAL trains over this bridge pre-merger? What kinds of power?

-- Sandy Bridges (smb@bridgeslaw.com), January 24, 1999

Answers

Apparently a connection was made west of Florence prior the merger, because Rocky Mount Division Timetable #2, December 15, 1967, shows it. By 1977, the bridge was gone, and the track was stub ended at Pamlico and called the Pamlico Subdivision of the Florence Division. We had a job called the Pamlico Switcher. Still, the last time I ran to Florence (1997), we still called the southbound intermediate signal and crossover to the main line at that point "Seaboard Bridge."

-- Doug Riddell (railroaddoug@erols.com), February 05, 1999.