During the 1940s, there was a huge influx of World War II traffic on Southern’s W-line (Asheville-Spartanburg, via Saluda) and the prosperity afterward, where all trains were powered by steam.

Like a locomotive slowly gaining steam up the Saluda Grade, an effort has been building over the last several years to develop a rail trail connecting Landrum, S.C. to Tryon and Saluda. Such a trail ...