The Thermal Belt Railway (reporting marks TBRY) is a Class III shortline railroad that operates for freight service on an irregular schedule on a former CSX line from Bostic to Forest City and on a former Norfolk Southern line from Forest City to Alexander Mills, North Carolina.
[1] By the early 1980s, both CSX and Norfolk Southern reached an agreement to allow the consolidation of trackage in both Rutherford and Cleveland counties.
The Gilkey-Ruth segment of this line had already been embargoed due to lack of traffic as well as downed trees caused by Hurricane Hugo.
[2] However traffic on that segment never materialized, and after about 10 years of dormancy, the Gilkey-Spindale section was converted into a rail-trail with the provision that it could be reactivated if needed.
[3] The remaining trackage has seen a steady decline of traffic to the point that by late 2010, parts of the line was used for rail car storage.
Number 1 is an Electro-Motive Corporation SW model switcher repowered with a Cummins 600 horsepower engine block.
An economic downturn as well as new nuclear power regulations in the 1980s sidelined the plant, parking the SW locomotive for several years.
The unit was sold in 1989 to Don McGrady, which formed Southeastern Shortlines Inc as an operator for the Thermal Belt Railway and, later on, the Caldwell County Railroad.