Today we will travel to Spencer, North Carolina, the home of the North Carolina Transportation Museum! This will be an all-day adventure visiting one of the largest museums in NC! We will leave from the Sugar Creek Blue Line Station at 644 East Sugar Creek Road (off of Raleigh Street) at 8:45 am. We can meet at this station ahead of time and carpool as a group to Spencer. There is plenty of safe parking at the Blue Line Station for those leaving their car behind. Of course you can travel on the Blue Line to the Sugar Creek station to meet the group as well. Alternatively, you can take Amtrak’s Piedmont train, leaving Charlotte at 10:25 am and arriving at Salisbury at 11:06 am, and return from Salisbury at 3:11 pm, arriving in Charlotte at 3:55 pm. However, please note it is over a 3-mile walk or bike ride from the Salisbury Station to the Spencer museum. Address of the Museum is: 1 Samuel Spencer Drive, Spencer, NC and there is plenty of free parking there. You can also drive on our own and meet the group at the museum.
See some of the amazing diesel and steam locomotives that powered our passenger trains in years gone by, explore various passenger and freight cars, see the railroad up close! Explore the shop buildings that are over 100 years old and understand how work was done on to keep the equipment in good repair on the railroad! Bring the whole family.
Admittance to the museum is $10 without a train ride and $20 with a train ride, and you can pre-order your tickets online, or pay from them at the Barber Junction train station adjacent to the entry parking lot.
https://www.nctransportationmuseum.org/
We will get a guided tour of the huge backshop where monstrous locomotives were once repaired and serviced! Also we can walk through the largest existing roundhouse in the south where many locomotives and cars are on display, some of which you can walk through. There are other historic buildings on the grounds along with many pieces of railroad equipment on display. There are also displays of antique cars and airplanes, so something for everyone! And don’t forget their outstanding gift shop as well.
You can pack a lunch, or visit the several restaurants a short walk or drive away, plus picnic shelters to eat at are on-site. We will plan on riding the 10 am train trip around the site as a group.
For car-pooling purposes, it is very important that we get an accurate count of who is going and if they can drive or will need a ride to get there. If you sign up and then change your mind, please cancel your signup so we know who to look out for. We should be back at Sugar Creek Station no later than 4 pm.
