The Saluda Grade and Slaughter Pen Cut

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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A look at what’s known as the Saluda Grade, the steepest standard-gauge mainline railway grade in the U.S. The Saluda Grade in Polk County is not on something called “Saluda Mountain.” It is a 3-mile section of track that gains more than 600 feet in elevation in that span with a highest official grade of 4.7 percent, but reaching 5.1 percent at one point between the towns of Melrose and Saluda.

Back in the day, this was a dangerous thing. Many railroading men have died on that section of track. There have been numerous runaway trains, including one that see-sawed back between the Saluda grade and another incline several times before stopping. One section of the grade became known as the “Slaughter Pen Cut” because of the trouble.

The Asheville Citizen reported in 1903:

“DEATH CLAIMS TWO HEROES IN SLAUGHTER PEN CUT”
“Saluda Mountain Witnesses Another Disastrous Wreck on the Southern Railway.”

“Melrose, (Via Tryon) N.C., Aug. 13 – Through freight train, third No. 62, from Asheville to Spartanburg, ran away on Saluda Mountain at 2:15 p.m. today.

The engine and 13 coal cars were wrecked near Melrose at the exact spot where Engineer Tunstell’s train was wrecked several years ago. The engine and (several) cars are a total wreck piled up in a cut, demolished. Engineer J. H. Averill Jr. of Asheville,, and Fireman Hair, of Asheville, are killed, and are under the wreckage. Their bodies cannot be found until the wreck is cleared. Brakeman W. B. Sherrill, of Swannanoa, had both legs cut off and will likely die.

Engineer Averill was a bright young man, 23 years of age, a son of Col. J. H. Averill, of Charleston, S.C. His father, mother, wife, and two little children, brother and sister, are spending the summer at Saluda and all were within three miles of where he met his untimely death. Averill stayed on his engine with his faithful fireman, doing all he could to check the speed of the train until the engine buried him.

As the runaway train passed Melrose the operator, J. W. Heatherly, ran out of the station house and Fireman Hair threw up his hand and smiled. Heatherly fainted. Conductor Howie and his flag-men, Bishop and Ward, were unhurt.

That’s a helluva story.