The Southern Railway Spencer Shops are a former locomotive repair facility in Spencer, North Carolina. The shops were one of the Southern Railway's primary maintenance facilities. The shops were built in the 1890s and named after Southern Railway president Samuel Spencer. Following dieselization, the need for the Spencer Shops diminished, and the facilities were decommissioned in the 1970s. The Spencer Shops and associated land were donated by the Southern Railway to the state of North Carolina, which established the North Carolina Transportation Museum on the site.[2]
History
Background
When American financier J. P. Morgan created the new Southern Railway (SOU) during 1894, he appointed Samuel Spencer as the new railroad's president. Spencer's first task as president is merging several smaller rail lines to support the Southern States' economic development, leading to significant growth in the SOU's mileage and earnings. But after acquiring many formerly independent railroads, much of SOU's inherited locomotives and rolling stock needed heavy rebuilds and repairs in which the railroad's inadequate former North Carolina Railroad