| Built by the Vulcan Iron Works in December of 1909 with construction number #1440, 42" Gauge Mogul #6 would go on to spend its entire life hauling logs in and out of the Great Dismal Swamp. With the dismantling of the Dismal Swamp Railroad in November of 1941, #6 was orphaned on a nine mile spur located south of Lynchs, North Carolina. The reason for this was because trucks were unable to access the lumber tracts in that part of the swamps because of a lack of roads. When the final logs were harvested from that lumber tract in the 1940s, old #6 was scrapped near the old sawmill at Lynchs, North Carolina. This photograph shows old #6 tied up with the "passenger train" at Benefit, Virginia, south of Chesapeake, Virginia. Due to the railroad being a common carrier, management had to provide some sort of passenger train across the line. As seen in this photo, the passenger train usually consisted of one or two flat cars and a very primitive coach built from an old wooden boxcar. Passenger service on the railroad was offered as late as 1939, so the photographer could have hopped right on as this image was taken in July of 1936. Exact date is an estimate. Don Hensley Jr. negative. |