[bgwfreak]

Does anyone know what happened to the train(s) from the Carowinds Railroad that was in the park in the 70's?

For those that didn't know about this, it was a train similar to BGW's train, maybe a bit smaller engine though.

The train used to travel around the park, and went right under the bridge you walk over when walking in the front entrance. That's why it's raised up like that.

[Trev32]

i think they sold it to another park.



i think somebody has asked this before.

[Cephas]

One engine is in storage and one is in operation at Michael Jackson's park; Neverland.

[bgwfreak]

One engine is in storage and one is in operation at Michael Jackson's park; Neverland.

Ok, are you serious? One of them is at Neverland?

[Carowindsman]

yah its true are beloved train went to Michael Jackson

[Trev32]

NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! not micheal jackson!!!! lol

[Dukeis#1]

We had a thread on this awhile back so I pulled the pictures up from it:

Melodia

<a href='http://members.aol.com/k9660r/train2.html' target='_blank'>Melodia at Carowinds</a>

<a href='http://www.steamlocomotive.info/locomotives/IA0015.JPG' target='_blank'>Melodia Today</a>

After traveling from owner to owner, The Melodia was finally purchased by a private rail enthusiasts group in California, and recieved heavy modifications. It still looks recognizable though. Apparently it has not run in several years.

Carowinds #2 (Blue)

<a href='http://members.aol.com/k9660r/train1.html' target='_blank'>#2 at Carowinds</a>

<a href='http://www.mjackson.net/specials/famwolf/images/24.jpg' target='_blank'>Today at Neverland 1</a>

<a href='http://www.jacko.de/mjj/nevtrain.rm' target='_blank'>Video of #2 at Neverland</a>

#2 Has had a much more interesting story. After sitting in storage at Carowinds for several years, it was finally bought buy a Toy Manufacturing Company in Ohio, where they put it on display outside of there headquarters. A few years later Micheal Jackson was building a private amusement park inspired by Disneyland, and he wanted a steam train. His people found the locomotive, and purchased it. After heavy changes to the engine's appearance, and a new paint scheme, it became Neverland #1, "Katherine." (Named after MJ's Mother) It is still in operation today (Though it's stay may be limited, I've heard MJ is thinking about selling Neverland because of his financial problems)

Anyway, the reason the railroad was removed was because of Thunder Road. While the railroad and it could have existed beside each other, the park did not want to have to deal with a grade crossing at the ride's entrance. Not only that, but steam locomotives are very expensive to maintain(SFOG is so tired of Steam costs that there converting their two engines to diesel) and Thunder Road was a very big coaster, so I'm sure the removal had something to do with money as well.

BGW's original two locos, Balmoral Castle and Der Hochbonagan(sp?) and Carowinds #2 are the exact same size. They were both built by Crown Locomotive Works in the late 1960s/early 70s. Melodia was bult by H.K. Porter Locomotive Works in the 1890s.

(I'm a train fanatic, if you can't tell )

[bgwfreak]

Cool! Thanks for the info.

Sorry for the repeat thread, but I did search, and didn't come up with anything :blink:

[CarowindsThrills]

Cool! Thanks for the info.

Sorry for the repeat thread, but I did search, and didn't come up with anything :blink:

Apparently the thread was deleted probably because Jonathan put a specific limit of the number of threads that are saved.

[Jonathan]

Hmm... all of the old threads should still be here; they aren't deleted. Unless they were posted on the old forums, of course, because when the site first opened I used a different forum software.

[Cephas]

There is a cutoff date for the topics on this forum. The forums on the list only go back to december, while these forums go back to October.

[Jonathan]

Actually, that's probably because you have it as display messages from the last 60 days. At the bottom of the page there is a drop down box and you can change it to display all messages, and it will show them back to October.

[kimv1972]

Hoping some early C&CRR crew still look at this.
Trying to trace where the railroad coaches from Carowinds went. Of the heavy ones that were at the park in 1980, one is at LaPorte County Steam Society in Indiana, three are at East Broad Top (one converted to wooden closed coach). Does anyone know who built them? They look like Keystone, definitely not Crown.
The four coaches that were built for Space City USA in Huntsville (the park for which Crown converted Melodia to 2-6-2 -- Melodia operated there one summer but the park went bankrupt and never opened) traveled with Melodia from Space City to Daniel Boone Village to Carowinds to Charlie Kelton's Timber Rail Village in Vermont. But Michael Jackson did not get them. I found one cut down into a flat car at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa in 2001, and suspect the other three are at Camp Dry Gulch in Oklahoma, converted to closed coaches for the Christmas Train, but not sure.
C&C locos #2 and #3 had air pumps for brakes. It appears #1 Melodia did not. Did the Carowinds coaches have brakes? I suspect that the Space City coaches did not. They looked like shortened versions of the standard Crown coaches. Were they?
Update on the engines: #1 Melodia still at Pacific Coast RR in Santa Margarita, CA. #2 purchased from Neverland to be a movie prop, now said to be stored in a warehouse. #3 was displayed many years in Huntsville, sold 2015 to Doe River Gorge Ministries in Tennessee who is restoring it and converting it to coal for operation on the old ET&WNC ("Tweetsie") tracks in the gorge.

[RollerBee]

^Thats already more than I know, I wasn't aware Carowinds had three locomotives, I only knew of two. Best source around this site for information that far back is the user Swamp Fox.

[swampfox43]

I've had several people over the years offer me information on the Carowinds locomotives. One train enthusiast, Dennis Larrick, told me that Carowinds ordered 3 locomotives from Crown Metal Products in Elizabeth, PA. But between 1971-75 they were flooded with new engine orders and couldn't meet the demand so #3 was never used. I have no idea where the carriages ended up.