RAILFAN GUIDES of the U.S.
Todd's Railfan Guide to
HENDERSON NC
In General
Getting Here
Map
Sights
Floobydust
RAILFAN GUIDES HOME
RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME
Henderson's best kept secret has nothing at all to do with railroading. Henderson is home to the oldest fire station in continuous use if North Carolina, Station #2, across from the former SCL railroad depot. I would like to thank Travis for a tour of Station #2. The Central Station is a little over a mile south down Garrett. where it tee's with Dabney Dr. As you come up to the intersection with Dabney, you can see the station across the street, just off to the right.
The depot in town has been remodeled and is used by retail and commercial businesses. It was formally an SCL depot. If you look around on the ground on the far side of the track, you can still see evidence of the other tracks that used to be at the station area.
Please Note: Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them. For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.
My RSUS philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a
thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only
get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented. Take
along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still
better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get
local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts
out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their
state maps do not have the railroads on them. If you can find em,
I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and
concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where
tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.
Getting to Henderson is pretty easy to get to. If you are coming south on I-85 from the Richmond/Petersburg area, take exit 218, which is US1. If you are coming from the Charlotte direction, probably the easiest exit is #214, taking W. Andrews Ave into the downtown area. From Raleigh, it is smooth sailing on US1 once you get out of the I-440 and I-540 suburbs of Raleigh, as it is almost interstate quality.
1 SCL Depot
2 Fire Station #2
Caught in the act, engine 3 got a call while I was outside
taking pictures as a Police minivan rolled by
North Carolina has some nice license plates for fire service
3 Central Fire Station
Williams Street Underpass
Montgomery St Crossing
Railroad Themed Mural
Across from the depot on Montgomery St. Painted in 1999.
Misc Area Buildings
Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct. Once in a while, an error may creep in, especially if restaurants or gas stations open, close, or change names. Most of my maps are a result of personal observation after visiting these locations. I have always felt that a picture is worth a thousand words", and I feel annotated maps such as the ones I work up do the same justice for the railfan over a simple text description of the area. Since the main focus of my website is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them. Since most of us railheads don't have just trains as a hobby, I have also tried to point out where other interesting sites of the area are.... things like fire stations, neat bridges, or other significant historical or geographical feature. While some may feel they shouldn't be included, these other things tend to make my trips a lot more interesting, like where the C&O Canal has a bridge going over a river (the Monocacy Aqueduct) between Point of Rocks and Gaithersburg MD, it's way cool to realize this bridge to support a water "road" over a river was built in the 1830's!!!
NEW 07/3/2012
Last Modified
07-Oct-2013