If there's anything that optimizes the old and venerable shortline railroad, one of the best symbols of that would be old and forgotten motive power from days past. The Pickens Railroad doesn't just have one or two older locomotives from a by-gone era, but in fact; its entire roster up until recently has been entirely made up of the ancient and forgotten General Electric U18B. The U18B had a very small production run, with less than two hundred locomotives being built. The U18B was intended to be used as a locomotive on branchlines, replacing locomotives like the old ALCO RS1/3's, and so forth. However, the locomotives were plagued by bad reliability and general crew discomfort. Its bad performance, and bad selling capabilities led to a successor locomotive not being developed. Out of the 180 or so locomotives built, less than 20 still exist, with all of the operational ones still being used on the Pickens Railroad.
As for the shot shown here, the metal formations on the left of the track that are elevated are the remnants of the old Piedmont & Northern Railroad, a 100% electrified interurban railroad that was a dominating regional in the 30's-50's Carolina railroad scene. The Pickens Belton Job is shown running on the intact, NS Z-Line - which is former Southern Railway.
