North Carolina Transportation Museum
All the details for your field trip to the museum. Or take a virtual trip and read about and explore the exhibits, including the Flue Shop, the Master Mechanic's Office, and the Robert Julian Roundhouse. Take a few minutes to watch the online video that explains the history of steam railroads in North Carolina.
Preview your trip on the web: North Carolina Transportation Museum
Learn more
- Lesson plan: The Road Taken This lesson will introduce and reinforce main transportation routes for people and goods in North Carolina. Students will enhance map skills including using cardinal and intermediate directions, using a mileage chart, and planning transportation routes. Students will reinforce their knowledge of resources found in North Carolina as well as name and identify the three regions of North Carolina.
- Industrialization in North Carolina Industrialization needed five things -- capital, labor, raw materials, markets, and transportation -- and in the 1870s, North Carolina had all of them. This article explains the process of industrialization in North Carolina, with maps of factory and railroad growth.
- Lesson plan: Trade and Transportation in the United States Students will imagine what it would be like to operate a plane, train, or truck along a trade route across the United States.
Related pages
- Greater Fair Bluff Historical Society Depot Museum: Students can learn about their Columbus County's history through artifacts and other exhibits at the Greater Fair Bluff Historical Society Depot Museum.
- Historic Railroad House: The heritage of Lee County is preserved at this museum in the old railroad depot agent's home.
- Union Station Railroad Museum: The heritage of Moore County and the town of Aberdeen can be seen at this museum through its exhibits of memorabilia and artifacts.
Related topics
- Learn more about North Carolina, Rowan County, antique automobiles, history, history museums, locomotives, railroads, steam engines, trains, and transportation.
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“The North Carolina Transportation Museum is located on the site of Southern Railway’s steam locomotive repair facility in Spencer in Rowan County. While the museum is young, founded in 1977, the story of the Spencer Shops reaches back more than one hundred years. In 1894 New York financier J. P. Morgan created the Southern Railway. A new shop complex, begun in 1896, was located halfway between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The shops were named in honor of Southern’s first president, Samuel Spencer.”
At your online visit to the Museum, you can read about and explore the exhibits, including the Flue Shop, the Master Mechanic’s Office, and the Robert Julian Roundhouse. Take a few minutes to watch the online video that explains the history of steam railroads in North Carolina.
If you are planning a live visit to the museum (rather than a virtual one!), this site includes all the information you need to know such as hours of operation, a map, special events, and fees.
See the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction documentary Spencer Shops View Larger Map