South Carolina - Railroad Depots along the Way (#2)

This is the second installment in our photographic tour of small town railroad stations that we found on our recent trip along the back roads of South Carolina.

This is the great old Southern Railway Depot that we found in Kline South Carolina.  Nicely maintained and preserved…but apparently just sitting there without a current purpose.   I suspect that the limiting issue is the size of the population of Kline…only 250 or so residents. 

I couldn’t find anything anywhere on this classic small town depot…not even what year it was built.  I couldn’t discover much about the town of Kline either… It’s a big watermelon shipping point and a new baseball field was inaugurated in April of 2010…complete with a concession stand and restrooms.

This is the Charleston and Western Carolina Railway Station in McCormick South Carolina.  It was built in 1910 to replace an earlier structure.  The original McCormick railway station was built by the Augusta and Knoxville Railroad and the Savannah Valley Railroad with the help of Cyrus Hall McCormick.  At its prime, 8 passenger trains per day stopped in McCormick and three hotels operated near the tracks to serve visitors to the town.

Currently, the depot serves as a antique and consignment store named ‘Hobo Consignments’.  It’s nice to see that it’s been preserved and re purposed.

This is the combined Southern and Blue Ridge Railroads passenger and freight depot in Belton South Carolina.  This classic brick structure was built in 1910.  The first depot was built in Belton by the Greenville and Columbia Railroad ca. 1853.  At its peak, depending on which source you read, between 68 and 85 trains and interurban trolleys came through Belton every day.  Today, 1 freight train per day passes by.  The Pickens Railroad Company connects with CSX here and it runs trains over a spur line with about 46 miles of track. 

Today, the depot houses the South Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame, a local business and the Ruth Drake Museum.  The museum focuses on the agricultural, railroad, industrial and cultural history of the area.  The Belton Depot is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

One additional grouping of South Carolina Depots is forthcoming in the next week or so…

Note: Click on any photo to enlarge if for better viewing.