Having relocated back to C&WC country, I was wondering if anyone knows of any C&WC depots still standing. I know of Hampton, Brunson, Fairfax (Union Sta with SAL), Martin, McCormick, Owings, Calhoun Falls (in early 80s), and Lowndesville (early 80s covered with sheet metal) - all in SC. Fountain Inn is gone from the tracks. A piece of the Sheldon SC depot is rumored to still be with us but I haven't been able to locate it to date. Any others still standing or relocated? Thanks in advance.

-- Buddy Hill (palmettoLTD@hotmail.com), December 08, 2002

Answers

According to Hampton valmap, the barn red building commonly identified as the C&WC's depot is actually the Hampton & Branchville's Depot. The C&WC's depot was located further south from the H&B depot.

-- Buddy Hill (palmettoLTD@hotmail.com), December 15, 2002.

Buddy, the only Hale I find in SC is located between Greenville and Easley on US-123. My DeLorme atlas shows only present-day Norfolk Southern located there. So far, I see no indication that C&WC had a spur there.

-- Bob Venditti (bobvend@bellsouth.net), December 13, 2002.

Thanks to all who responded. Steve, where exactly is Hale? I couldn't find it on a map of the C&WC. Bob, I'll try to review val maps this weekend to see if the building identified as Hampton is of H&B or C&WC origen.

Time and property owners permitting, I'd like to take field measurements of the remaining depots (especially Varnville, Martin, and Brunson) and compare the C&WC data with CofG Class C depot blueprints to see how close the designs truly are. They sure seem to share a lot of similarities at first glance.

-- Buddy Hill (palmettoLTD@hotmail.com), December 13, 2002.

There is a brick station building at Woodruff, but it's heritage is probably late ACL or early SCL. The freight shed at Hale (corrugated sheet metal) is still in place. The Henry St. station, Spartanburg, was demolished in the mid-80's. The foundation, steps from trackside, and retaining wall are still in place.

-- Steve Kamp (sakamp@hotmail.com), December 11, 2002.

Buddy. Several items- first, Prosperity SC has a small '50's-era cement block depot alongside the tracks. This had been used for storage for a nearby market in recent years and was still standing when I saw it earlier this year.

Hampton SC depot, I was given the impression this red barn-like structure actually belonged to the Hampton & Branchville RR, even though it wore an ACL-style blue metal nameboard when I last saw it. Was it jointly owned or used by the H&B and ACL?

Varnville SC's wooden depot, identical to Martin SC, still stands nicely preserved in a park just west of downtown on the north side if the tracks (I've got photos of it heading your way shortly).

At Augusta, the two-story brick freight house still stands at Reynolds and Campbell Sts. I spotted a modern freight depot-style building in Port Royal; if it is, it may have been built after the 1959 merger with ACL. (photos of both also coming) The newer red brick depot still is in use at Laurens too. take care.

-- Bob Venditti (bobvend@bellsouth.net), December 11, 2002.

The former depot at Fountain Inn was bought about 1995 by Tommy and Sherry Traynham. In early 1996 they moved it to their farm land in the Green Pond community, in Laurens County, with the intention of renovating it and including it in a new house they planned to build.I saw the old structure at the Traynham place in June 1996 but haven't been back to see what's been done with it since then.

-- James D. Sheppard (JamesS243@aol.com), December 10, 2002.