The winter sun is setting on the Thermal Belt Railway's service in Forest City on New Year's Eve, 2008. The engine is on the former Southern Railway SB line, acquired by Rutherford County from NS in the late 80's. It has just taken a second cut of empty baretables through Forest City for storage on the east side of town since the last customer on that section had shut down. The middle track was the SAL branch to Rutherfordton, about 5 miles west of here. That branch was abandoned west of the switch in the early 80's and NS acquired trackage rights from Shelby on the Charlotte Sub and this branch so part of the SB line could be abandoned. The track to the right was the SAL's Forest City pocket track, which served the depot and a farm supply center. No. 1 would run just over the hill in the distance to a lumber yard to tie up. All of this is now abandoned and the SB line is being turned into a recreational trail. I believe that pulling these empty baretables out several weeks later was the last move on the SB line, and the Thermal Belt soon cut back to about 1 mile of service for a transload in Bostic near the former Clinchfield/SAL junction.
