Pickens Railroad

Front: The Easley-Pickens line was chartered in 1890 by the S.C. General Assembly. Construction of the line, which ran from Pickens to Easley, was completed in 1898. At Easley the Pickens Railroad joined the Southern Railway. Ex-governor John Gary Evans was a prominent booster for the Pickens Railroad and also one of its first passengers. The line was known as the “Pickens Doodle” because there was no turning track and the train would run backward to Easley and forward to Pickens. Reverse: Passenger service was discontinued in 1928 and the primary users of the Pickens Railroad became Singer Manufacturing and Poinsett Lumber and Manufacturing Co. Singer built a sewing machine cabinet plant next to the line in the 1920s and in 1939 acquired both the Pickens Railroad and Poinsett Lumber, which they used to supply wood veneer. After more than a century of service, the last run from Pickens to Easley took place in April 2013.