Cliffside Railroad Improvements

From The Manufacturers’ Record
October 1, 1914

Two photos of trestle nearly completed. To the left, a long view showing the entire structure. At right the camera looks along the tracks, straight across the trestle. — Construction in progress.

Interesting improvement work on the Cliffside Railroad, near Cliffside, N. C., is illustrated in the accompanying cuts. Figure I (right) shows a barrow from which the base of the big fill is being made. The large stone culvert is 12×12, with forms under construction for the concrete arch 2½ feet thick, 5½ (true circle) above spring line. The smaller culvert is 8×8, with concrete arch 3½ feet above spring line and, in addition, there are two 36-inch emergency pipes to assist the culverts in taking care of the water flow in case of floods, etc.

Figure II (left) shows the trestle at a distance, with the culverts practically complete and the base of the fill almost in. At the extreme end of the trestle, derrick with 75 foot boom is shown in action in solid rock barrow, where stone containing from one-half to two cubic yards are deposited in the base of the fill. This derrick is handling an average of 200 cubic yards per day without the use of a stick of dynamite, mule, cart or car. From 8 to 10 men are required to keep the derrick in operation.

This trestle is 65 feet high and 218 feet long, and 37,500 cubic yards are required to make the fill. As soon as the base of the fill is made, the company will probably use a shovel to finish the improvement work and the other forces will be transferred to the extension work at Durham (Durhand?) Shoals. R. R. Haynes is president of the Cliffside Railroad; Chas. H. Haynes, treasurer; W. H. Terrell, chief engineer; and L. P. Mason superintendent.

More Questions Than Answers

A culvert with two openings, one, about a third larger than the other. Only the larger one has water emptying out into the stream's continuation — Photo by Sam Davis

Until these photos surfaced, about the only evidence we had that the trestle existed was pictures of a little “dummy” engine and two passenger cars crossing the structure. When was it torn down? Why was it replaced? It must have been a major undertaking; there must have been something in the papers about it. Anyone have the answers?

Here’s a 2002 photo of the culverts at the ol’ swimmin’ hole at the roller mill. Were these the culverts mentioned above? If so, no one alive ever saw the trestle before it was dismantled.

A version of this article appeared in the Fall 2009 issue of The Cliffside Chimes, newsletter of the Cliffside Historical Society.