https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... -to-trail/

Looks like the inevitable has finally come for the legendary Saluda.

It would've made for a cool ride and is close enough to Asheville to be a draw, but I can't imagine the cost of an insurance policy to operate passenger trains over the "steepest mainline grade in North America".

Who is going to want to bike up a 5% grade?

Hi Steven,

As far as who'd want to bike up a grade that steep...the Virginia Creeper Trail has grades nearly that steep. Most people bike downhill and take the shuttle back, but some don't mind the grades:
http://www.vacreepertrail.us/casey.html

Not a problem for E-bike and E-tricycle riders.

Looks like the perfect opportunity for some enterprising local with a big van to rent bikes and shuttle people UP to the top. Even out-of-shape duffers like me can enjoy riding DOWN a 5% grade.

.

In a "past life" I was a long-distance bicycle rider in Pennsylvania. I did a couple "centuries," or 100-mile days.

"Saluda Grade in Polk County, North Carolina, gains 606 feet (185 m) in elevation in less than three miles (4.8 km) between Melrose and Saluda. Average grade is 4.24 percent for 2.6 miles (4.2 km) and maximum is 4.9% for about 300 feet (91 m)."

A 4.5% grade for three miles is an easy challenge for any in-shape, dedicated rider. I have literally done worse on bicycle RACES. Yeah, I capitulated the first time and pushed the bike up the last hundred feet, but so what? I was still the first local rider across the finish line. I''ve also been on tours where one day was 23 miles uphill, seven miles down. Lots of older riders took their time and stopped at any excuse for a pull-out to "enjoy the view." One rider took on the grade IN TENTH GEAR the whole way up, only to have his derailleur shatter at the top; another rider pounded his way to the top, RODE BACK DOWN, and climbed back up again just to be able to say he did! (Of course, these were the two youngest guys on the tour.)

The frequent model for steep rail-trails is to offer a ride to the top and let them cycle down. Two examples are the Western Md. Scenic RR (ride the train to Frostburg with your bike, ride your bike down) and the Virginia Creeper Trail (van shuttle to White Top, ride back to Abingdon).

Hmmm....
So, here's a crazy idea....
Put the trail alongside the track...
Offer rides up and down....
Do rail bikes, etc...
Everybody wins...

Note that the state says they have $5 Million.....what's NS's price?
It's likely cheaper to leave the railroad and add the trail versus abandonment....

Sandy, I was a distnce runner back in the day. Broad St. Run 30 times (10 miles) but no full marathons (26.2 miles).

Best was training on the back trails in the Wissahickon Valley. I passed many a biker going up but boy did they dust me on the way down.

5% grade is a piece of cake to an elite Mountain Biker (no E-bike; leg power only) but yes, shuttle up, bike down (you can coast) is a big seller and anyone can do it.

In New Hampshire the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb goes UP Mt. Washington (you have to pedal; no riding the Cog). The 7.6 mile route features an average grade of 12%, with extended sections of 18%. The last 100 yards reach a 22% grade! The first riders pass the finish in about one hour, the last riders cross around the three hour mark. Riders need an auto shuttle back down.

Phil Mulligan

As noted, part of the secret is going to be e-bikes.

I still remember my first century -- it involved the seven-mile grade on 9W AND going over Storm King mountain on the way to the Bear Mountain Bridge, then up the other side for however long that misery is. I would have appreciated -- greatly! -- some assistive torque at points along that route; not everyone appreciates that copper-penny taste at the back of the throat toward the end of the day...

As the Interstate is only a couple of miles off the route, I expect the van 'circulation' to be quick and relatively easy.

A typical mountain biker wouldn't flinch much at a 5% grade. It's not even that steep for a roadway. Interstates allow up to 6%.

OTOH, here's a local race that is totally insane. 152 miles, 10,000 feet elevation gain, one day. Only those with legs of steel need apply.

RAMROD [Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day] is the Pacific Northwest's premiere one-day ultra-marathon cycling event. It combines the incomparable scenery of Mount Rainier National Park with a challenging course featuring 10,000 feet of climbing over 152 miles. The course begins in Enumclaw, WA and takes riders through the rolling hills near Eatonville, Elbe and Ashford before entering the Mount Rainier National Park. You'll be challenged by three climbs: a 12 mile ascent to Inspiration Point (4,850 ft), the 3 mile Backbone Ridge climb and the challenging 9-mile Cayuse Pass ascent (4,694 ft).

So much ignorance here.

First this is great news. As both a closet railfan and coming from a railroad family, I am glad to see my home state of NC make up for the terrible loss of letting their portion of the Va Creeper Trail slip away back in the 1970s.

As a competitive cyclist (road, crit, MTB, gravel, and cyclocross), this is awesome news. This new trail will def attract of a lot of gravel bikers and the 5% grade is nothing. Ive done multiple trips up and down on the full VCT and look forward to the challenge of this new trail.

I applaud NS and the groups mentioned in the article for coming together to make this happen. Not all rail lines are meant to last and clearly the last bit of traffic has been squeezed from this line.

Then why don't you GTFO?

If you want bike trails, build bike trails, you don't need to pressure a railroad to tear up track engineered to transport 100+ ton cars, you can string them anywhere. People ride bikes all summer past my parent's house at 8,000 ft. in Colorado on a road with no shoulders, they would be able to do that anywhere else, too.

The bike trail movement is largely smoke and mirrors by NIMBYs and real estate developers, along with governments who crave the property taxes from upscale developments, at the expense of economic activity that helps working class people. I say that as someone who has been riding bikes on city- and state-built trails my whole life (none of them on former railroads), at least 20 miles every night when I was in Denver, currently on a Gary Fisher hybrid but I used to ride a Trek racing bike with smooth tires (and I have the scars on my left elbow from four surgeries, including a bone graft, to prove it).

I generally don’t hesitate to push back against rails to trails where there’s no provisions for preserving the rails or a stipulation that the rails can be put back if there are service demands, but let’s be honest NS was never going to re activate Saluda. It’s been almost 20 years and traffic has not materialized to warrant its use.

Between ROW restoration, continuous maintenance fighting slides, and the operational challengers of working the grade it’s very unlikely anyone operating the line would be able to turn a profit including a museum outfit.

So in this case let ‘em have the trail, it’s a better boon to the economy then an abandoned rail line that has very little chance to ever operate again.

That's just not feasible because cuts along the line are barely wide enough for just the track.

If you're not familiar with the line, then watch this old Southern training movie on Youtube: Saluda: The Mountain of Challenge

Rails to Trails *are* a form of rail preservation.