The Train that Makes Your Drink Cartons and Bath Salts: Serving Customers in the Blue Ridges

The Murphy Branch arguably has the craziest track profile in all of North America, including the steepest continuous mainline grades over two mountain passes. While nearby Saluda gets all the fame, it's nothing to compare against the unforgiving terrain the Western North Carolina Railroad tried to lay rails over in the late 19th century to serve the lumber industry, eventually becoming part of the Southern Railway.
Today the wood industry is still alive, but for turning chips into paper and packaging products. After Norfolk Southern sold their freight operations in 2014, WATCO purchased the line and created the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad, serving the mill town of Canton, and other smaller customers deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
On a visit to the Blue Ridges in January 2020 amidst snow flurries, we'll follow BLU train T59 serving Evergreen Packaging, as well as a chemical plant in Waynesville producing a variety of Epsom Salts for personal care or agricultural use.

[@Bowfinger10]

I've been watching your videos for nearly 14 years, and I gotta say- you've reached Danny Harmon quality with these productions. Well done! Always a superb quality video!

[@ROLLMEAWAY]

Beautiful footage in the snow!!!

[@mik3r0wave]

Great video! No better sound than a train horn shifting pitch as a passes by.

[@davidpulaski5628]

Great soothing video with those snow flakes falling amongst all those hills. Nice shot at 23:00 mark. Subscribed. 👍👍👍

[@AndreiTupolev]

Nice logo they have. That opening scene is very atmospheric with all the steam drifting about.

[@tedfisk1211]

This video was enjoyable and informative, not only about the railroad, but of the customers along the way. You passed along a lot of information and that sets this video apart from those that just show trains going by.

[@edwardnashiv]

i see this train DAILY - i live right next to the tracks this train operates on in asheville

[@sparky107107]

nice video, following the train and crew as they do the daily tasks

[@charlesmaxim4493]

Excellent informative video, I love discovering where my ex-D&H locomotives wind up.

[@paulsmith5398]

The paint scheme is so similar to the "old" Northern Pacific engines, its spooky!

[@davidbrown4823]

Quite the railroad and video. thank you.

[@tristaterailroading]

Amazing video and it is awesome to learn about this railroad.

[@FreihEitner]

That shot along the Pigeon River at about 23:00 looks amazing, polluted though the river is.

[@rickrogers2649]

Another long time viewer here and I really enjoy the narration and back stories about the operations. Thank you for sharing these great videos.

[@scottjohnson6563]

Great video and narration.

[@scottjohnson6563]

As a kid in the 50s we watched "Industry on Parade", KZbin has episodes from that time - kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4qkmp9saNGVj8k

[@AndreiTupolev]

That Huey looks remarkably complete if it's been there, as it probably has, for a good few years. Good to see that it seems to be quite well looked after

[@tomschmidt3165]

Very good. Thanks for posting.

[@williamjohnson6624]

I love how you explain and narrow rate each seen.

[@rich_rich90]

Too funny! US railfan & just discovered your channel. I'm a UK resident born in....Epsom, England! :D

[@moggie100th]

Terrific! Thanks for the narration!

[@sterlingodeaghaidh5086]

be cool to see you come out to Kansas, home of WatCo's HQ and catch the SKOL and KO on their day to day runnings. Especially since they recently took over operations in Colorado on the former MoPac line as Colorado Pacific.

[@sernajrlouis]

Great video

[@trystanwilly8300]

I rarely saw trains in Asheville NC compared to my hometown of Hornell NY if any at all it always brought me joy and I have seen dpu locomotives in Hornell which is apparently almost as rare or uncommon as seeing a train in Asheville

[@FloridaRailfan]

Awesome stuff, BLU is one of the best railroads to chase for sure!

[@DetroitAreaRailfan]

Nice one! This video was very interesting!

[@bigB6flyer]

I’m surprised the River Line AVL-Knox doesn’t get much traffic. I’ve only seen the two trains 135 & 136 on it.

[@richardhutchings921]

I got to see and video this train in Clyde, N.C. the last week of Jan 23.

[@AndreiTupolev]

20:45is a pretty cool shot. 💪

[@freedomfan4272]

I haven't watched your video yet but I have it saved to watch later. I wanted to pass along the information if you have not heard yet that the papermill in this video will be shutting down by June of this year. I was born and raised not to far away from here in Hendersonville.

[@FreihEitner]

Great video with excellent narration.

[@mccoy79productions66]

Nice video!

[@bobbymiller2605]

I recognize that paint scheme. I see WAMX make a turnaround at the Elkhart, IN yard each day on the GDLK line.

[@frederickschulkind8431]

I like following reporting marks, especially since they tend to be inherited through mergers. Three of the boxcars are marked BKTY, which I don't recall seeing before and had to look up. It belongs to the Union Pacific, but it came from the Missouri-Kansas-Texas or Katy Railroad.

[@Greatdome99]

BKTY refers to Bankers Leasing Co, a Southern Pacific subsidiary who at one time (~1970s) financed fleets of freight cars for the MKT. Bankers Lease no longer is in business and as you note, all is Union Pacific today.

[@Joeztrainz]

Awesome video!! Love the shot at 20:47

[@foxjet77]

Great coverage. Really enjoy your informative narration.

[@jamielacourse7578]

Scare stripes would be a great addition....

[@taslimchoudhary1253]

🌺👍🇮🇳👍🌺 Nice Coverage

[@Steve51983]

Another great video. Very informative. Love the narration.

[@darrylwmurphy738]

GP-Stands for General Purpose. SD- Stands for Super Duty

[@Greatdome99]

Neither stands for anything technically. SD is more likely Special Duty.

[@sanjok1992]

Very interesting, thanks!

[@Nicola636128]

Great video.

[@Greatdome99]

Alas, the mill at Canton shut down in the spring of 2023 causing strain on the town and the Blue Ridge Southern as well.

[@SantaFe19484]

Awesome video!

[@genislebastard3491]

Railroader is an excellent game based in this area.

[@Star_Gazer_77]

Canton NC is 35 miles away from me as I’m in East Tennessee

[@MarkNieting]

Excellent video!! Does Canton Paper still receive coal by rail……up the triple switchback?

[@Greatdome99]

No. The coal-fired plant was shut down years ago.

[@ironmule]

Great video! Really, you took a lunch break during prime time switching at the plant? C'mon.

[@brianbickley8368]

Unfortunately, it was recently announced that this Canton paper plant will close soon.

[@CentralPennRailProductions]

I heard, that really is unfortunate. It was also announced this month that Saluda Grade will be sold and converted into a trail. Lots of history being lost in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

[@highmountainflyer]

Looks like you woke up that morning to shoot that

[@yerrymartinez]

I live right beside the Alabama southern railroad a watco company

[@bradfordthompson8326]

Be interesting if they make Hemp paper instead of pulp wood since it uses so many Chemicals...This killed our mills in Washington state...very 😥sad

[@TheRealAmericanRailfan]

How often do these trains run? i want to railfan here.

[@rosesmith6208]

how do they get up such a steep grade of 4 percent? hear about the derailment in ohio? that is not to far from us we could drive there in less than one hour. palestine ohio.

[@CindyHarris-rd4gb]

As a Asheville native I didn't see a new railroad until 2019.also when did you make this video? Evergreen shut down and put thousands of people out of work and only God knows what will happen to the blue ridge southern.

[@NSFAN8000]

Very cool!! Yeah, unfortunately, the stupid environmentalist movement has resulted in the regulation of the paper industry. I also do remember that back where I used to live on Staten Island, there’s a paper mill right by the Travis Branch. They have the option to have access to the railroad for paper shipments, but so far they have not made any decisions regarding that.

[@adventurekid9242]

So it's okay for any industrial entity to simply dump waste products into a river? The Pigeon River is known as the Dirty Bird. That paper mill that you find so enjoyable in the video was once responsible for poisoning 40 mi of river and impairing the water quality in the Tennessee River as well. Luckily it is a lot better now and any lost revenue from your stupid and silly environmental regulations is more than made up with the tourist industry that brings rafters kayakers and nature lovers into the area

[@NSFAN8000]

@@adventurekid9242 Im not saying that its ok 4 factories to dump their crap into the river. What I AM sating is that its not ok 4 the Gonverment to exaggerate the problem and then put heavy ( and often unesscary) regulations on private business. And furthermore, the reveneue collected from the kayckers and nature lovers is gonna go 2 the GONVERMENT, NOT THE FACTORY!!

[@adventurekid9242]

@@NSFAN8000 The revenue generated will go into the economy That's usually how a free market society works. Yes, the government will collect tax on revenues generated of course that's simply how things like that work but overall any lost revenue from encumbering the industrial entity in this case evergreen packaging products is more than made up with extra lodging visits to diners and restaurants and service industry and patronage of rafting and guiding companies on that section of the river not to mention the unlucky individuals to get caught by a Canton Police department as well

[@gavinvalentino6002]

"... stupid environmemtalist movement..." and complaints about the government exaggerating the issue? That is some of the most willfully ignorant gooberthinking barely twitching in a flatliner's brain. Humans have efficiently DESTROYED the ONLY PLANET THEY CAN LIVE ON and it's woefully too late to save it, yet the huge majority of people will pretend everything is fine, right up until the impending end. It's childish idiocy to whine about any efforts to prolong the inevitable. Stop pretebding your arrogance is something to promote, and stop being so desperate for approval fron strangers that you hope to get thumbs-ups from other pouting people who want to pretend they're important too. I'm a normal, gasoline-car-driving citizen, no solar for my house, no hiippie or hipster enviro stuff in my life. But as a smart, well-educated adult with awareness of reality, I have to shake my head at anyone measurably unintelligent enough to make any claims that Earth is in fine shape. You are clueless and a willing victim to the irreversible destruction of the planet under your feet. It's a pitiful lie for yourself and for anyone you would hope agrees with your sour-grapes vinegar attitude.

[@NSFAN8000]

@@gavinvalentino6002 SHUT UP!! I have the right to use whatever resources I want to, and so do private enterprises!! This idea that the world is gonna end cuz of rising temptures is utter BULLSHIT!! Global Temptures have only risen by about 1.09 Degrees Celius. U need 2 do ur reasearch instead of just believeing what some anarchists say.

[@jerryjones2818]

Trains are neat, but they do not "make" anything but noise and smoke. They TRANSPORT things. Just thought you'd like to know.

[@ChainsawNW1218]

ChainsawN&W1218, interesting operation, We road on the SMRR years ago a SRR 2-8-0!🚂🛤