Mark's Photo Travels

I do confess: I love peaches! So yesterday, I took advantage of the season to buy a peck of locally grown peaches at Taylor's Orchard peach shed, a long-time fixture in Greer operated by  Fisher's Orchard  since 1997. While I was out and about I decided to take advantage of some free time to take photos of some of the small changes I've noticed in Taylors in the past few months. Update: The peach shed is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places . A few weeks ago, I noticed CSX railroad workers removed some of the cross-ties and have yet to replace them. I thought I'd be neat to take a photo before work on the bridge has been completed. I parked at nearby Covenant Community Church  on East Main Street and walked the short distance to the viaduct. No services or other activities were being held that day, otherwise I would have parked farther away to stay out of their way. At one time, this building was home to Stephenson Memorial United M...

After seeing the abandoned railroad right-of-ways at Shoals Junction and nearby communities, I wanted to know more about the abandoned railroads of South Carolina and what traces could still be seen today. I found part of my answer in the  South Carolina section of Abandoned Rails , a website devoted exclusively to abandoned railroads and their history. I was fascinated by the site's individual maps of abandoned railroads because the satellite view shows the right-of-way is still visible in many cases, even after decades of abandonment.  Some time later, I came across  the South Carolina Department of Transportation's draft multimodal transportation plan and rail inventory  that included a map of the state's abandoned railroads on page 13 . With the map being a static image, you can't zoom in or change views to get more detail like the Abandoned Rails maps that use Google Maps. With the heat and humidity keeping me indoors as often as I can get away with, I d...